Raymond Hansen Hibbs

Raymond Hansen "Doc" Hibbs, 94, died December 31, 2015, in Topeka, Kansas. Raymond, a long time Chanute resident, was born at Wilburton, Kansas, April 12, 1921, to Raymond Earl and Josiephine Williams Hibbs. When he was ten years old he moved with his family to eastern Kansas. He attended grade school at Thayer and graduated from Morehead High School where he was active in sports. He and Dorothy Stafford were married on January 17, 1942, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

During World War II he served three and one-half years in the U.S. Army Air Corps. After his discharge from the military in 1945, he began working for Western Petro Chemical Corporation, formerly Warwick Wax Plant, and continued working there for thirty-four years until the plant closed in 1979. During that time he worked as a unit operator until he was promoted to production supervisor. He then was employed by the Gates Rubber Company at Iola, where he retired in 1986. After the death of his wife, he moved to a retirement facility in Topeka.

Raymond became a member of the Otterbein United Methodist Church in 1950, and was a faithful member of the church serving twenty years as treasurer of the Board of Trustees. He was a member of American Legion Post 70. He enjoyed sports playing on both work and church league softball teams, hunting quail and pheasant, and working in his yard.

He is survived by his son, Gary, and wife Jane of Topeka; two granddaughters, Susan Smith, and husband Patrick of Topeka, and Amy Gingrich, and husband Damien of Olathe; four great-grandchildren, Lauren and Mackenzie Smith and Jasper and Emerson Gingrich; one brother, Dean Hibbs of Chanute; and three sisters, Mrs. Evelyn Phillips of Chanute, Mrs. Don (Betty) Jennings of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Margaret Vanek of Endicott, New York.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy; his parents; one brother, William Wiley Hibbs; and five sisters, Fern Dalton, Opal Nylander, Geneva Lour, Dorothy Fogelman and Lauvaunna Hummer.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, January 9, 2016, at Otterbein United Methodist Church, 631 W. Seventh Street, Chanute, Kansas 66720. Visitation with the family will be one prior to the service. Burial will be in Chanute Memorial Park Cemetery following the service.

Suggested memorial contributions may be made to Otterbein United Methodist Church or Midland Care Hospice, 200 S.W. Frazier Circle, Topeka, Kansas 66606.

To share a memory of Doc or to leave a special message of condolence, please visit the guestbook below.