Hughes said his father was “very, very active” and possessed “a beautiful mind” until he recently was diagnosed with pneumonia.
“He was sharp,” his son said. “We’re so thankful and so lucky.”
Even though Hughes was active in the community, he always had time for his family. His father attended his sons’ activities and obtained the training to be a swim judge.
“He set an example I can’t match,” said Hughes, 65. “I just admired him.”
Hughes graduated from Middletown High School in 1939, then enrolled at Oberlin College when he was 16. He graduated from Oberlin in 1943 with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 until 1946 in the Southwestern Pacific.
It’s difficult to find a Middletown organization that Gordon Hughes didn’t impact.
Hughes began his Armco career in 1946 as a production checker at Middletown Works. He was named branch manager in Venezuela in 1952. Five years later, he and his family returned to Middletown where he became branch manager of Allied Products Sales for Armco International.
In 1963 he was named assistant director of personnel and in 1965 was named director of personnel. He served as assistant vice president of personnel for Armco’s Steel Group and assistant to the president before being elected vice president of the Eastern Steel Division.
He was named Steel Group vice president in 1974 and a member of the four-man Corporate Executive Office. He became vice president administration in 1978 and retired from Armco in 1979.
“He was a doer,” his son said. “But he never imposed himself on people.”
Gordon and his wife were founding members of the Middletown Community Foundation. He was the former president and member of the board of the Middletown Area United Way; former member of the board of the Middletown Symphony; former member of the administrative board of First United Methodist Church; former vice president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce; and former member of the boards of Bank One of Middletown, the Union Central Life Insurance Co., the Manhattan Life Insurance Co. and the United Theological Seminary.
Back “in the day,” Hughes said, Armco expected its corporate leaders to contribute to the city.
“There was a sense of civic duty,” he said. “That was not uncommon. That’s what you did. You were expected to do that.”
There also was heartache in his life. His wife, Betty, died in 2002, and a female friend, Lloyce Martin, died last month. In 1971, his son, Gordon E. Hughes, a sophomore at Miami University, died in an accident while driving in Cincinnati.
“It was devastating,” David Hughes said.
A visitation will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Aug. 1 at First United Methodist Church, 120 S. Broad St. A Celebration of Life Service will follow at 11 a.m. at the church.
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