Hugh P. Devine

Hugh P. Devine faced a choice as he undertook the task of helping to raise eight children in Crow Point in Hingham: maintain order, or risk being overrun by the cheerful chaos of a thriving Irish Catholic neighborhood. “He was great, but I guess you could say he was a disciplinarian,” says his son, Hugh. Six of the Devine kids were boys, with sisters Pat and Ceci acting as bookends to keep order. “Crow Point was mostly big Irish Catholic families,” Hugh says, “which meant there were a lot of wild Indians running around. You had to keep an eye on things.” Mr. Devine passed away on March 16 at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. He was 89. As a young newlywed and fledgling artist, Mr. Devine talked about moving to Mexico to live as a painter. A world war and eight children kept him from pursuing that particular dream, but in time a new dream was formed, and he and his beloved wife of 66 years, Catherine, couldn’t have been happier with the way things turned out. The two loved, and were deeply involved, in the Hingham community, volunteering for youth sports, helping out at St. Paul’s Church, and, most importantly, helping to create the Crow Point Sailing Club, which brought a close neighborhood even closer together. “No one ever had any money,” says his son, Joe. “The kids would go over there to play,” adds Hugh. “There would be chicken barbecues on the beach. All the parents in the neighborhood became best friends, and my mother and father just thrived in that environment. It was the greatest place to have a family and raise kids.” In addition to being a quintessential family man, Mr. Devine was also an accomplished artist. It was a skill he honed in an unexpected place. While serving in the Signal Corps in London during World War II, he whiled away his spare time drawing cartoons of his fellow servicemen, which they would then send back to their families. “He was famous for it,” says Hugh. When he returned to the United States, Mr. Devine attended the Massachusetts College of Art on the GI Bill, and landed a job working for Al Capp, the creator of the famous “Lil’ Abner” comic series. “My father would do all the drawings, and Al would come in, put a couple dots of ink on it and sign his name,” laughs Hugh. “And my father said, ‘Wait a minute—I do all the work and he gets all the money?’” He worked for himself ever since, designing book covers, inventing board games, publishing comics, and creating award-winning watercolor paintings, including a magnificent pastel of his wife that still hangs in their Hingham home. Along the way, Mr. Devine also published a collection of his “All Angels Parish” comics, which were syndicated in Catholic newspapers around the country, and wrote and illustrated a book on Hall-of-Fame hurler Dizzy Dean. Throughout his life, however, Mr. Devine’s real passion remained family and community. He was a gregarious, churchgoing, old-fashioned family man who made friends wherever he went, whether it was on the South Shore, the Cape, or in Florida, where he and Catherine owned a condominium. He loved baseball and golf, inhaled mystery novels, and lived to spend time with what eventually became a formidable Irish brood. He is survived by his eight children, Patricia Flaherty and her husband Terry, Joe and his wife Maryanne, Hugh and his wife Noreen, Tom and his wife Christine, Bill and his wife Marianne, Steve and his wife Barbara, Matt and his wife Nancy, and Ceci Hanlon and her husband Ed, along with 27 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren. “He had strong character and a strong will,” says Hugh, values gained from growing up during the Depression and serving in the war. “No two days were the same, that’s for sure. He danced to his own tune, and did what he wanted.” Visiting hours will take place on Thursday, March 19, from 4-8 PM in the Pyne Keohane Funeral Home, 21 Emerald St.(off Central St.), in Hingham. A Funeral Mass will be held for Mr. Devine at St. Paul’s Church in Hingham on Friday, March 20, at 11 AM. Burial in St. Paul’s Cemetery, Hingham. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the St. Paul’s Building Fund, 147 North Street, Hingham, MA, 02043.