Robert David Hughes, of Westport Island, died Sept. 7 surrounded by his family, after a brief and courageous battle with lung cancer.
Bob was born in Boston in 1941, attended Thayer Academy, Tufts University and Georgetown Law Center.
Bob strove to achieve a life committed to nobility. The ideal began at Camp O-AT-KA in Maine, where Sir Galahad was his role model. He met his wife there 46 years ago.
They moved to Chicago in 1964, where Bob became a partner at A. C. Babize & Co., a brokerage agency. Both Bob and Jeannine became Baha’is in 1972, and Abdu’l Bahá, son of the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith, replaced Galahad as his role model for nobility.
In 1974, he merged his firm with Alexander & Alexander, an international brokerage, where in 1985, he became managing vice president of the Chicago office. In 1975 he took leave of A&A to become the administrative head of the National Bahá’í Center in Wilmette, Ill.
Bob helped set up Y-Mutual to provide insurance for YMCAs nationwide. After moving to Maine in 1992, Bob served the Boothbay Region YMCA as president of the Board of Trustees and CVO in 2000, finding an opportunity to serve the noble principles of the YMCA.
Survivors include his wife Jeannine; children, Rebecca A. Tran, Carson Robert Hughes, Matthew Rahmat Hughes, and Eric Sharaf Hughes; and sisters, Patience Johnson and Joan Hatfield.
Bahá’í burial service was held on Sept. 8, and memorial devotions on Sept. 10.
Bob’s devotion to equality and justice, desire to protect and assist all who turned to him, and his endless patience were qualities repeatedly mentioned.
