This was written back in Oct. 2018 and shared on this group.
As I attended the funeral of a friend, I reflected back on the first memory I have of this man.
John R. Hughes was a young man then. He was probably no more than than 25 years old at the time, in the early 1960’s. I was all of 10 years old. He drove up to a job site where my dad was an inspector, somewhere along Ben White Blvd. in Austin. He waved to us to get in. He was driving a large sedan, I think an Oldsmobile. It was equipped with 2 business band radios. I can imagine one was for talking to the office and the other for communicating with his crews.
We took off leaving a cloud of dust behind us. I don’t recall if we were headed to drink coffee or perhaps eat lunch together. I marveled at how he navigated the traffic while he talked on both radios, a microphone in each hand.
I also recall encountering him at Lakeway on job sites where my Dad was an inspector. That was a time when Lakeway was first taking off. There was not much out that way back then. That may be the first time I actually saw blasting being done. We saw roadways turning from rows of holes drilled in rock slabs, to moments later those level slabs of rock lifted into the air and changing elevations by several feet, breaking them into manageable sizes to be moved away. I knew seeing that, that one day I wanted to do that too.
I didn’t see John R. (the name by which he was always known, by those of us in the industry) again until about 1972. By then I had become a peer in the business. I had positioned myself to blast and move mountains myself.
John R wasn’t a big man in stature, but he was big on ideas and a commanding presence in his own way. He did some of the most difficult projects that were ever done in the Austin area.
We went from being competitors in the 70scto being allies and working on projects together in the 80s. We took on some very large and complicated projects in Austin and one extremely difficult one in Dallas.
John R’s level of education was no greater than mine. A high school graduate. But I saw him dream up machines, drawing the plans on a napkin. From there he’d head to the machine shop and the next thing you’d know he would have a fully functioning tunneling machine built and ready to drill a large diameter hole through solid limestone.
He never backed up from anything. I can’t say everything always worked out but he would never quit. In fact, he finished his last tunnel in San Antonio just a few weeks ago at age 80, with a tunneling machine he had designed and built.
While I wasn’t always a fan of John R Hughes, we were competitors and often had different objectives. But I did always admire his ability to make a comeback. He was the kind of guy most people couldn’t say no too. He, like many of us hit rough patches in the construction business, but he never quit. That’s why he was a fixture in the Utility Construction Business for almost 6 decades.
The funeral today was a gathering of Who’s Who in Utility Construction in Austin, shrinking as it is. It’s sad, but it’s part of the cycle.
The one thing I can almost guarantee is there won’t be another John R Hughes and his Rube Goldberg type machines being used to dig up Austin & Texas. Everyone coming along now are much too educated to be that innovative.
This was taken from the Bio from his obituary.
John Reynolds Hughes
October 8, 1937 – October 3, 2018
John Reynolds Hughes, 80, of Bastrop, Texas, formerly of Kyle, Texas, peacefully passed away surrounded by his family on October 3, 2018. He is survived by his wife Donna along with his children. John R Hughes, Jr and wife Sally, Arthur L Hughes and wife Moana, Dawn Moers and husband Richard Moers III. Grandchildren Nicole Ohlendorf (Ryan), Courtney Bukowski (Beau), Samantha Ireland (Dan), John Hunter Hughes (Shelby), Justin Hughes, Megan Harp, Allison Harp, Russell Moers, Ryan Moers and 5 great grandchildren and “adopted” son David Kallfelz (Tonya).
John R was preceded in death by his parents Emery and Katherine Hughes, brother Emery Jr. and son Charles Hughes.
John R was born and raised in Austin, Texas on October 8, 1937. He was named after his great uncle Captain John R Hughes a Texas Ranger with Company D.
John R was a local Heavy Civil General Contractor who began his career working for Zachry. He helped build the underground infrastructure in Austin by working on projects for the City of Austin that spanned his 60 year career
Below is the uncle that John R was named after. I found it to be a great look at this very outstanding Texas Ranger.
Angora Chronicles 