Charles Alexander Hughes ’40

Chuck died quietly June 21, 2006, after a long illness.

He prepared at Staunton Military Academy, and transferred in 1937 from Northwestern University to Princeton. Among his relatives who attended Princeton was John Sharer Allen '35.

At Princeton, he majored in art and archaeology, and was a member of Theatre Intime, the German Club, Spanish Club, and Gateway Club. He also earned a master's in general and comparative linguistics from Columbia.

From 1942 to 1945, Chuck was a staff officer and interpreter in the Coast Guard. The rest of his life was devoted to the study of the world's languages, and he wrote a number of books called the World Language Series. In the process, he traveled the world, freelancing as a cruise director and interpreter. For nine years he ran his own school of languages in which 125 languages were taught, including a dozen American Indian languages. "To secure those (American Indian languages), I had to go and live right on the reservations themselves," he wrote in our 25th yearbook.

He was a member of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Chuck is survived by his sister, Helen Hafner; his brother, William; and the family of his deceased sister, Janet Stolz. His classmates offer them their deep sympathies.