Jim Hughes, lifetime teacher

 

More recent and perhaps less historic among Fairfield's “offspring” was James Richard Hughes, who graduated from FGS in 1958 and from Brookville High in 1962.

Graduating is not the highlight of his life, which ended on Nov. 12, 2018. He was 73.

Jim Hughes not only served as one of Fairfield's most diligent history compilers, his career as a coach and teacher were lauded immensely over the years. He was a graduate of Ball State (Muncie) and played four years of baseball for the Cardinals before becoming a coach.

He was still coaching 50 years later – baseball, golf, cross country and boys and girls basketball. His obituary says Hughes' “unforgettable attention to detail with the baseball field maintenance and piercing whistle will never be forgotten!”

His biography:

• Indiana Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame
• Indiana Baseball Coaches Association (president in 1983)
• Franklin County High School Hall of Fame in 2015

Hughes was one of Fairfield's best athletes in a time when such was not necessarily considered important. We knew him as somewhat shy, quietly efficient and not the guy we wanted to be like. He played left field on the softball team and forward or center on the basketball team.

We won a lot of games.

Franklin County High School (Brookville) named its baseball stadium after Hughes, and the school established a memorial scholarship in his name that is open to FC students who wish to pursue an Education curriculum.

Much of Fairfield's pictorial history in the result of Jim Hughes' efforts in compiling organizing and explaining what he knew. His family lived west of Fairfield on a farm that none of us ever visited. The farm was quite historic.

Hughes also contributed heavily to Town Under the Lake, a 2011 tome that included contributions by dozens of former residents of the valley.