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2011 SESSION

11104797D
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 813
Offered February 7, 2011
Celebrating the life of Samuel Hughes, Jr.
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Patron-- Putney
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WHEREAS, Samuel Hughes, Jr., a respected mentor and retired educator in the Amherst County Public Schools, died on February 22, 2009; and

WHEREAS, Samuel Hughes developed a profound love for education early in life; he rose from humble beginnings in Fitzgerald, Georgia, where he was born in 1928 and divided his childhood time between working on a cotton farm and attending school; and

WHEREAS, after graduating from Queensland High School in 1947, Samuel Hughes joined the United States Army where he proudly served as a Quartermaster and completed a tour of duty in Korea; and

WHEREAS, committed to achieving, Samuel Hughes earned his bachelor’s degree from Savannah State College in Savannah, Georgia, in 1950; he earned both his master’s degree from New York University in New York and his doctorate from Western State College of Colorado in Grand Junction, Colorado, while also working as a full-time educator; and

WHEREAS, Samuel Hughes began his teaching career in Bedford as an agricultural education teacher at Susie G. Gibson High School where he taught techniques and practices to improve farming methods across Bedford County, and met his wife, Ida; and

WHEREAS, in 1960 Samuel Hughes was appointed as principal of Central High School in Amherst where he advocated for college attendance, transformed the school, and shaped the lives of his many students with a message of dreaming big, working hard, and sacrificing for the future; and

WHEREAS, after an influential 45-year career in education, Samuel Hughes retired in 1992 as the Director of Federal Programs and Vocational Education for Amherst County schools; and

WHEREAS, never one to stand idle, Samuel Hughes assisted students in the Old Dominion Job Corps Center, served as a consultant to K-12 administrators across America, mentored doctoral students at Virginia University of Lynchburg, worked as an as adjunct professor at James Madison University, and lent his abundant energies to many prestigious educational organizations; and

WHEREAS, Samuel Hughes will be fondly remembered by his wife of 54 years, Ida; his children, Samuel and Debony; and the many students, educators, and leaders whose lives he influenced; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of Samuel Hughes, Jr., respected mentor and educator; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Samuel Hughes, Jr., as an expression of the General Assembly's respect for his memory.