On Jan. 23rd, a cold wintry day, we buried my dear friend, Dick Hughes. Even as I write this column I am experiencing both sadness and joy: sadness that Dick will no longer be part of my life and joy because he was part of my life for many years.

I first heard of Dick in the summer of 1951. My summer job was to be the tennis attendant at the public court on Shore Rd. and 100th St., Bay Ridge. I had just finished my third year of high school at Xavier, the Jesuit high school in Manhattan. As tennis attendant, I was to keep the four courts clean, make any necessary repairs on the tennis nets and check the permits of people who came to play. It was an ideal summer job for a high school student.

At that time, I did not play tennis though 20 years later as a college seminary professor it became my most enjoyable recreation and exercise. Though I did not play tennis that summer, I enjoyed watching others play. I was not at the court very long before the name of Dick Hughes began to be mentioned to me frequently. Players wanted to know whether Dick had been at the courts and whether I had ever seen him play. I discovered that the previous summer he had won the court championship. The championship match was described to me. Apparently, the contest took place on the hottest day of the summer. For the match, Dick showed up wearing an Irish turtle neck sweater. He wore the sweater throughout the match and won easily. Apparently, Dick’s wearing the sweater in the sweltering heat had psyched out his opponent!

Linda Busetti Photo

Dick Hughes

Years later, I came to know Dick through my older sister. She and he socialized with other young couples in Bay Ridge. When I became a student at the major seminary in Huntington, Dick often drove me back after a vacation. When, as a young priest, I became interested in playing tennis, Dick and I often played as partners. Both of us loved the game and loved playing together.

It took me a long time to find out about Dick’s experiences in the Second World War. Like many veterans of that war, he did not talk very much about what had happened to him and his fellow crew members. The only way I could get information from Dick about his war experiences was to keep asking questions.

At Dick’s wake, his son told me that his father did not frequently talk even to his wife and son about what he had gone through during the war.
On one mission, Dick’s plane was shot down and landed in the North Sea. Some of the crew died. Dick spent five days in a life raft. Eventually, he was picked up by Nazi soldiers and sent to a prison camp – the one featured in the film “The Great Escape.” The escape had taken place just before Dick arrived at the camp. He was in the camp for 500 days until the American army under General George Patton freed him. During the last days in the camp, because the German soldiers were retreating and not feeding the prisoners, Dick almost starved to death.
A devout Catholic and daily communicant, Dick was involved in many Catholic apostolates. He believed in the role of the laity in the Church. There was one apostolate that was special to him. That was distributing the Baltimore Penny Catechism. I cannot recall when he started giving away copies of the Catechism but Dick was strongly committed to spreading the truth of Catholicism and he believed that truth was contained in the Penny Catechism.

He thought that what anyone needed to know in order to live correctly was contained in the Penny Catechism. He was absolutely tireless in mailing it. This seems difficult to believe but it is the truth: Dick Hughes, personally and individually, mailed out over one million copies of the Penny Catechism. One million! It’s amazing. From time to time, friends helped Dick but basically the apostolate was a one-man operation. One million! That’s dedication! Dick was very proud of a letter he received from Mother Teresa encouraging him in his apostolate.

In his coffin, there was the Purple Heart he had received and a copy of the Catechism.

When he retired from KeySpan, Dick was interviewed and asked how he would like to be remembered. He replied, “as an apostle who tried to teach the work of God and as a man who did his best to combat the evil of the day while drawing the most joy from life’s blessings.”

That is how I will remember him.