‘Husky Pride’ wasn’t just a phrase for Hughes
It was a way of life for proud alumnus, who died Sunday
John Hughes was always thinking ahead and outside of the box.
That’s why on June 13, Hughes sent out invitations to his friends for a celebration of life party in his honor at the Meadows in Hellertown at noon July 16.
Hughes knew his time was limited as he was battling terminal liver cancer but had always maintained an upbeat and enthusiastic attitude and was looking forward to one more chance to celebrate with the special people in his life around him.
“Candidly, I don’t want to miss my party,” Hughes wrote in his invitation.
Sadly, the party Hughes planned is not going to happen. Instead, his friends and family will be conducting funeral services this weekend.
The Dieruff High School Hall of Famer and Kiska Award winner died Sunday at his Lower Saucon Township home with his wife of 58 years, Ginny, by his side. He was 80.
News of his passing, while expected, was a blow to the Dieruff community where Hughes had been omnipresent for more than a decade with his support and encouragement to Dieruff kids, coaches, teachers and administration.
While Hughes didn’t coin the phrase “Husky Pride,” which has been the unifying motto of Dieruff sports teams for decades, he made it a lifestyle.
He embodied “Husky Pride” at every event he could and even when things weren’t going well on the scoreboard, Hughes, who loved to take pictures of Dieruff kids, kept snapping away. When wasn’t photographing kids, he was encouraging them.
While others may have looked down on Dieruff kids, he took the time to lift them up.
Dieruff may have been near the bottom of the standings in a sport like boys basketball or softball, but to Hughes, the Huskies were always No. 1.
He would do anything and everything he could to help a team or an individual athlete.
Hughes was a member of the Dieruff Class of 1961 where he served as president of student council and Key Club and was the winner of the Kiska Award.
He graduated from Lehigh in 1965, where he served in the Army ROTC, receiving the Distinguished Military Graduate Award. He then was inducted into the Fifth Army and served at Fifth Army headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
He worked for Armstrong Cork Company in Lancaster after discharge from the Army and then moved to Long Island, New York, where he owned an independent office machine dealership.
But he never forgot where he came from and decided to return to the Lehigh Valley and reunite with his alma mater. He always said if it weren’t for the teachers and coaches he had at Dieruff he never would have been a success.
So, he made it his mission late in life to tell people his story and encourage the current Dieruff students to listen to teachers and coaches and work hard.
“I’ve been blessed,” he would say.
He was officially the first president of the Dieruff Alumni Association, but he was really the school’s No. 1 fan.
“I really felt that John was a part of the resurrection of the Dieruff football program,” said former Huskies coach and current Pennridge football coach Kyle Beller. “You know when we got hired there, the program was on a 30-game losing streak.
“That was about the same time that the alumni association was formed and John became a staple at Dieruff. He was always there at the sporting events and in the school. He touched the lives of so many students. Everyone knew Mr. Hughes and everyone loved Mr. Hughes because the kids could see he had a heart of gold.”
Beller, who went 22-47 at Dieruff in seven seasons before moving on to become an assistant coach at first Bethlehem Catholic and then Whitehall, became a close friend of Hughes.
“He got ordained and wanted to be the one who married me and my wife,” Beller said. “I honestly don’t know a person who would say a bad thing about that man. He always had a smile on his face. He always had a positive attitude even when times were tough. He’d give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.”
For seven seasons, Beller’s Dieruff football teams would end preseason training camps with a visit to Hughes home where he allowed the team to use his inground swimming pool and patio and give them the run of his beautiful home. He’d feed the team and coaches as well.
To Dieruff athletes, many of them coming from single-parent homes, it was like going to Disney World. While the kids were always excited and happy, no one smiled more than Hughes. That’s
because he was always talking about giving back, but he did more than just talk about it.
He knew many of the other rival schools throughout the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference had more resources and means than Dieruff, so he wanted to give them things the other kids at other schools had. Most of all, he wanted to give them the gift of knowing someone was in their corner, someone cared about them and someone had their back.
“He was one of the school’s first Kiska Award winners and he didn’t just have Husky Pride as a student; he had it his entire life,” Beller said. “I know the whole alumni association was doing stuff, but John was the leader.
“Before the Allen-Dieruff football games at the stadium, the alumni association started having tailgate parties in the park across from the fieldhouse and we’d pull up in our bus and hear them cheering us on as we arrived. It meant the world to those kids and in the middle of it was John.”
Dieruff teacher and girls basketball coach Cathy Piston said it wasn’t just the athletes who treasured Hughes.
“John was recognizable to every active student in our building whether you were an athlete, a member of the ROTC, in the musical, a National Honor Society member, a cheerleader or whatever you were involved with,” Piston said. “He faithfully attended all Dieruff events. Students knew him by name and you can’t say that about a lot of people. Many of the pictures on the walls in my classroom were taken by him. There are many people who say that they have Husky Pride, but he breathed it. Only a handful of people have had as much pride in our school as John Hughes.”
Piston said Hughes attended Dieruff ’s 2023 graduation ceremony in a wheelchair.
“His presence, his stories, his knowledge of Dieruff history … all of it will be greatly missed,” Piston said.
Current Dieruff football coach Dave Lutte said his team will play with Hughes in their hearts.
“He exemplified what it means
when we say as coaches ‘Once a Husky, always a Husky,’ and no one gave more selflessly of himself than John,” Lutte said. “He was always willing to help any program or activity at Dieruff. He loved taking pictures of our kids and they loved seeing them. He will be missed immensely.”
Athletic director Dave Stoudt said it was an honor to get to know Hughes.
“He was a fixture at all our events and took such pride in seeing our kids do well,” Stoudt said. “Our students would light up when they would see him and his camera. He was also instrumental in connecting our Dieruff alumni with the current students. And those connections helped to raise funds for campaigns that were outside the reach of the school district budget. He truly epitomized what leading and and serving with Husky Pride means. He never asked for anything in return. We will all miss him.”
On a personal note, Hughes once encountered a fellow by the name of Rocky Groller, my father, while dad was sitting alone at Stahley’s Cellarette one day in 2018.
It was not a great time for my father because he had lost my mother in December 2017 and was missing her because Stahley’s was their favorite place.
The ever-giving, ever-upbeat Hughes sat down with my father, bought him a drink, and they chatted about old times, and perhaps a little bit about me, for nearly two hours.
I received a phone call that night from Dad who said: “Keith, you’d never believe who I met today at Stahley’s and who I had the best time with? John Hughes! We talked and talked and talked. What a great guy!”
It was the happiest I had heard my father in a long time.
Thank you John. Like so many Dieruff kids and alumni, I will miss your kindness and generosity as well.
A viewing will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Bachman, Kulik and Reinsmith Funeral Home at 17th and Hamilton streets in Allentown. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the same venue.