Angela Hibbard-Duddy, Brick's First Recreation Director, Dies At 91

Brick, NJ -- Angela M. Hibbard-Duddy, who transformed recreation in Brick Township during her 30-year tenure as the township's director of recreation, has died. She was 91.

Hibbard-Duddy died Saturday at Ocean Medical Center in Brick, according to her obituary on the Colonial Funeral Home website.

Hibbard-Duddy was the township's first recreation director, working her way up from a secretarial position to head of the department. Along the way she set the tone for recreation in the township, creating parks and programs that served everyone from special needs residents to beach lovers.

Hibbard-Duddy was the first female director of recreation in New Jersey and was a true role model for the working woman. She founded the Special Persons Annual Athletic Track and Field Day, pushed for the building of municipal tennis courts, obtained the grants for the Forge Pond property, assisted with the development of two ocean beaches in addition to Windward Beach, and founded and developed several playgrounds including, but not limited to, Herbertsville, Frede Drive, Birchwood Park, and the park on Drum Point Road that has been named in her honor, Angela M Hibbard Park.

In a May 1990 article in the Asbury Park Press, Robert Russo, then superintendent of the township's recreation commission, said Hibbard-Duddy was special.

"She i parted a tremendous energy to everything she did," Russo said in the interview, which occurred two months after Hibbard-Duddy retired.

"The whole concept of recreation is making people happy," she said in an August 1990 interview, when Angela Hibbard Park was renamed in her honor.

Hibbard-Duddy, whose first husband, Edmund H. Hibbard, was a Brick Township councilman for 17 years, started working for the recreation commission in 1960, and kept the department running even as her bosses came and went. According to the Asbury Park Press 1990 reports, she wrote the early grant requests that led to the purchase of the Forge Pond recreation area, the Windward Beach property, and owther areas.

She initiated the Shore's first soccer programs and expanded Brick's recreational program to include youth basketball, year-round gym programs, an instructional swimming program that served 500 youngsters each summer, a senior citizen club, and a preschool program. She started the recreation soccer program in the late 1960s, and in 1970 became superintendent of the recreation commission. She was promoted to recreation director by Mayor Dan Newman in 1983.

She was a charter member of the Brick Police Athletic League (PAL) and was an active member of the hospital committee that raised the funding for Brick Hospital, now known as Ocean Medical Center.

Her generosity and spirit were unparalleled to the youth and citizens of Brick.

She was predeceased by her first husband, Edmund Hibbard, in 1987, and by her second husband, Francis X. Duddy, in 2010.

Surviving are her son, Mark Hibbard, and his wife, Cheryl, of Brick; her daughter, Donna Kuch, and her husband, Kevin, of Toms River; four grandchildren, Mark Jr., Teague, Meghan, and Kelsey; and seven great-grandchildren: Jace, Tyler, Teague Jr., Keira, Olivia, Jason Jr,, and Estlin.

The viewing hours will be on Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Thursday morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Service at 11 a.m. at the Colonial Funeral Home, 2170 Route 88, Brick, NJ 08724. Following the service, an endowment will take place at Ocean County Memorial Park, Toms River.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in her name to the Angela Hibbard Scholarship Fund, 1122 Federal Way, Toms River, NJ 08753.

Angela Hibbard-Duddy, from the unveiling of the renovated park on Drum Point Road named for her. Photo via Brick Township Municipal Government Instagram account; Candles image via Shutterstock