Dolores M. Hibbard

Dolores Margaret (DeLapp) Hibbard, age 85, passed away June 25,2025 after a short illness. Dolores was born on December 30, 1939 in Flint, MI. She was the daughter of Wiliam Harold and Margaret (Takacs) DeLapp. After graduating Flint Central High School in 1957 she attended Flint Junior College (Mott Community College), eventually earning her bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Michigan-Flint. She went on to earn two master’s degrees in Early Childhood Education from Eastern Michigan University. Dolores taught in the Flint Community Schools for 32 years, as a kindergarten and prekindergarten teacher at Cook Elementary and later at Cody Elementary, and served as the first Kindergarten teacher in Doyle-Ryder Elementary’s gifted program. She retired in 1999. While still a student at Flint JC, Dolores married Wallace G. Hibbard. They celebrated their 65th anniversary in April of this year. The couple have one daughter, Dawn Hibbard. Dolores and Wally lived and worked in Flint throughout their careers. She was active in Girl Scouting, and a long-time student of pottery at the Flint Institute of Arts Museum School. In the late 1970s Dolores founded The Learning Box, a company that produced a book of learning activities for pre-school children, and Grandma’s Button Box, a learning toy. The toy was launched at the American Toy Fair in 1980. The couple retired in 1999 and moved to Elk Rapids, MI, where Dolores joined the Elk Rapids Garden Club where she served as Environmental Chair (or Environmental Nag as she liked to say), volunteered at the Elk Rapids Chamber of Commerce and the Elk Rapids Library, and was active in the local Delta Kappa Gamma teacher’s sorority. She joined the Quilters Guild, took up Ikebana flower arranging, and covered the Village Council for the Elk Rapids News. Dolores exercised her interested in Native American culture through Road Scholar trips and volunteering for the Smithsonian Institution to help document Native American culture at a national event. She and Wally traveled extensively in retirement, visiting many European Countries and traveling all over the United States. More recently she spent time closer to home due to ill health but she continued to enjoy visiting with friends and feeding the local chipmunks. She will be remembered for her bright red VW bug with the handmade Environmental Nag window sticker, her unruly little dog Daisy, and her love of Elk Rapids and the friends she made here. Dolores was preceded in death by her parents, lifelong friends Elizabeth and Fred Hans, and her beloved Daisy dog. She leaves to cherish her memory her husband Wally, daughter Dawn and husband Ray Rust, granddaughter Fiona Hibbard, sister Rosemarie Peters, nieces Renee Zeintek and Kerri Miller and great niece and nephews Olivia and Quincy Zeintek and Dax Miller, and dear friends Dick and Sandy Nordin, Barb Mullaly, and Linda and Phil Ziemke.

Dolores M. Hibbard

December 30, 1939 - June 25, 2025