Hugh Woodbury

Hugh Woodbury died on the eve of his 97th birthday, September 23, 2025, in South Portland, Maine.

Hugh was born September 24, 1928 in Paterson, NJ to Eugene and Lena Esplin Woodbury. A few months later, his family moved to California, and Hugh grew up in Altadena. He played the trumpet in band and was an Eagle Scout. During World War II, he participated in the WERS (War Emergency Radio Service). Hugh attended Caltech, receiving his BS in physics in 1949 and his PhD, also in physics, in 1953. He was recruited by the General Electric Company and joined their Research & Development Center in Niskayuna, NY shortly after graduation. Hugh spent his entire working life at GE, retiring in 1990. His work mostly involved experimental studies on semiconducting materials.

Hugh met the love of his life, Joyce Nicholes of Provo, UT when she spent a summer with friends in Southern California. They married June 29, 1955 in the LDS Salt Lake City Temple and raised their seven children in the Church. Hugh held many volunteer Church callings, including branch president, traveling high councilor, Sunday School teacher, family history consultant, and clerk. Hugh sang in Church choirs and performed in plays and musicals, including as Ebenezer Scrooge. From 1992-94, Hugh and Joyce served as full-time senior missionaries in London, England. For over a decade, beginning in 2000, they traveled weekly to the Church's temple in Boston, MA to assist others. Hugh extensively studied Church history and the scriptures and had a large personal library.

Hugh was very much a do-it-yourselfer around the house. He cultivated the apple trees on the family's Glenville, NY property; the fall season always saw an applesauce production line in the family kitchen. Hugh grew a large vegetable garden and planted blueberries, strawberries, and dwarf fruit trees. He built a storeroom in the basement for canned goods, cereal, wheat, and baking items and regularly shopped specials; grocery store employees were known to ask if he was feeding an orphanage! Everything was carefully dated and rotated. When Church members were questioned if they had their two-year food supply, Hugh was the only one to say, "Yes!"

In 1996, Hugh and Joyce left upstate New York for new adventures on Peaks Island, Maine, fulfilling Hugh's lifelong dream of living on the water. One of his main projects was moving dirt to level their yard! Hugh and Joyce thought they would get ten good years on the island but stayed for nearly twenty, until old age caught up with them and they moved to senior housing on the mainland.

Hugh was predeceased by his son Eugene and grandson Henry Joseph. He is survived by Joyce, his beloved wife of 70 years, and six children: Ann (Jerry Moore), Scotia, NY; Beth (Harry Hart), Puyallup, WA; Joseph, Orem, UT; Henry (Coral Oliver), Sharon, MA; Daniel (Cindy Henderson), West Friendship, MD; and Katherine, Portland, ME. Also eighteen grandchildren: Kezia, Emily, Jonathan, Kelly, Eve, Stephen, Daniel, Amanda, Zachary, Caleb, Alyssa, Elijah, Sylvia, Giacomo, Maggie, Jeffrey, Emma, and Justin. And sixteen great-grandchildren: James, Sarah, Madeline, Emma, Ivy, Olive, Ian, Westly, Max, McKinley, Oakley, Eliza, Aurora, Diana, Weston, and Mia.

Visitation: October 9th, 4-7pm, Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland. Funeral: October 10th, 11am, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 29 Ocean House Road, Cape Elizabeth.