March 8, 2005
WOLFGANG SAXON
New York Times

Christopher Wells Hobler, an aspiring musician who founded the fund-raising organization Hope Happens for Neurological Disorders in 2001 when he learned he had Lou Gehrig's disease, died of the illness Feb. 16 in his hometown of St. Louis. He was 39.

His death was announced on the Hope Happens Web site by Mike Schroeder, executive director of the organization.

Hobler was a member of a prominent Missouri family and the third member of it to be stricken with the disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Told in mid-2001 that he had ALS and that there was no hope for him, he founded ALS Hope -- The Chris Hobler/James Maritz Foundation, later changed to Hope Happens, to fight for better ways to raise money and conduct research on ALS and related disorders.

The organization has raised nearly $3 million.

In the 1990s, he led a rock band, Sonic Joyride, with which he toured nationally and recorded albums on the Anomaly label. The band was popularized on college radio stations