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SALT LAKE CITY — Former Deseret News Editor John Hughes died Wednesday at age 92.
A Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Hughes worked as the newspaper's editor from 1997 to 2007. He was the first person to hold that position who was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the publication founded in 1850.
Former colleagues remembered him not only for his journalistic savvy but for his way with people.
Longtime Deseret News columnist Jay Evensen said it wasn't Hughes' impeccable credentials or impressive resume that made him a great leader.
"He was the most likable, down-to-earth, genuine person you could ever find, and he had a passion for his work and the people he worked with. As a journalist and editor, he was tough, demanding and principle-based — the best of the best," he said.
"But his chief concern was to lift the people around him and make them better. I always knew he cared about me, not just what I wrote, and that made all the difference. Journalism has lost a truly great one."
Retired Deseret News managing editor Rick Hall said he cherished the decade he spent learning from Hughes.
"He loved honesty. He loved storytelling. He loved excellence. As a reporter and writer, John lived those principles. As an editor, he patiently — but certainly firmly — instilled those principles in others," he said.
Hughes, he said, never compromised on excellence but neither did he belittle or shame. "He just boldly, consistently, kindly — and with great enthusiasm — moved toward excellence. And he sincerely welcomed colleagues to join him on that journey," Hall said.
Hughes' decade at the newspaper were watershed years. The Deseret News went from an evening paper to a morning paper and circulation grew with him at the helm. As reporter Jerry Johnston wrote in 2006 upon Hughes' departure, "but more than that, the paper and its people have a certain focus and self-confidence that bears the Hughes stamp."
Deseret News reporter Marjorie Cortez, an opinion writer at the time, said she was grateful to have worked with someone of his caliber.
"When we wrote columns or house editorials, John insisted on reviewing printed copies of our work. He would edit them with a red china marker. You hoped, at a minimum, that he would sign off your work with a check mark. Occasionally, he'd write a one word comment, such as 'Bravo!' On those days, your spirits soared," she said.
Cortez said one time the paper's editorial board argued ferociously about what should happen to Elian Gonzales, a 5-year-old Cuban boy whose mother died in an attempt to bring him to Florida. It turned into a fierce custody battle between the United States and Cuba.
"Most of us were of the belief that the young boy should be returned to his father. We were overruled but to John's credit, he wrote the editorial himself. Eventually, Gonzales was reunited with his father in Cuba, where he became a poster boy for the Castro regime and the Cuban revolution, just as John predicted," she said.
Cortez also recalled that Hughes loved dogs, occasionally bringing them into the office. When her dog Casey died, he suggested she take time off to properly mourn. She also remembers Hughes sitting in her office and checking in on her after she returned from her father's funeral.
"He was a good man," said Lisa Bowen, who worked as Hughes' assistant during his entire tenure at the paper.
Hughes, she said, saw the potential in people and gave them opportunities to succeed. "I appreciate just how he approached things," Bowen said. "He believed in people and just wanted to have a good newspaper."
Hughes was born in Wales in 1930 and grew up in London during World War II. His parents moved to South Africa after the war where the 16-year-old Hughes got a job at a local newspaper. The family joined the Christian Science Church and he later landed a job with the church's highly regarded newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor. He also studied as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
He covered Africa and then Asia, including the Vietnam War, for the Monitor. He won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting the collapse of Sukarno's regime in Indonesia. He also won the Overseas Press Club award for best international reporting for a series on the burgeoning illicit drug trade in the 1960s. He eventually became the editor of the Monitor, a post he held for 12 years.
Hughes wrote a column for the Monitor, which he continued to write during his time at the Deseret News. He also has written several books, including an autobiography titled, "Paper Boy to Pulitzer."
Before joining the News, Hughes worked at the State Department as its spokesman and as a journalism professor at Brigham Young University.
He was at the United Nations as director of communications when he got a call from Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, asking him to weigh in about the Deseret News with a committee that was examining the paper.
Hughes was eventually asked to do some consulting. One thing led to another until, in 1997, he found himself sitting across the desk from the church's president at the time, President Gordon B. Hinckley. The discussion went well.
"Then, as respectfully as I could, I said, 'Might you not be making a mistake putting a non-Mormon in this slot?' He said, 'No. You've lived among us, you understand us and we trust you.' That nailed it,'" Hughes told Johnston.
Hall said in 2006: "Two things come to mind about John's years here. He taught us all that only excellence is acceptable and that our First Amendment rights must always be connected to journalistic responsibility. He instilled those things here and did it with a remarkably warm and human touch."
After leaving the Deseret News, Hughes returned to BYU as a professor until retiring in 2015. He also joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife Peggy, a BYU alumnus, have one son, Evan. Hughes has two other children, Mark and Wendy, through an earlier marriage to the late Libby Hughes.
