The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
This one’s for Sean Hughes _ ‘Requiescat In Pace’
You can probably remember where you were, and who told you, when you found out that Sean Hughes, Principal of Lower Merion High School, had died as a result of a car accident ca. 7:30 am on Saturday, November 13.
Apparently, he was driving his son Nolan to a soccer tournament and, on the way, was the fateful intersection of Hay Road and Fleming Pike. The word is that his Ford Explorer was hit by a Mercedes SUV and that the point of impact was the driver’s seat.
Melissa O’Connor, Narberth Athletic Association President and recent LMHS Field Hockey Assistant Coach and Head Coach of Girls’ Lacrosse, called my husband at around 6:20 pm on Saturday night.
Melissa, Jim, and I are all involved in running NAA NFL Flag Football at Welsh Valley Middle School and we had concluded our 9-week season by early Saturday afternoon.
On Saturday evening, Jim and I were in Narberth outside John McShea’s tent, making sure that there was a convenient parking place for Radnor High School Senior James Mc Govern to unload a drum kit for his Jazz Quartet prior to performing.
Mc Govern’s Jazz Quartet performance was part of a fundraiser for GET Café next to Mc Sheas’ and John Mc Shea had contracted with the organizers to cater the event.
A few weeks earlier, I had offered to help recruit student musicians and our 4 pm to 7 pm sets consisted of three female singer-songwriters, one from Boyertown, Lower Merion, and Springfield MontCo, followed by McGovern’s Jazz Quartet.
In the chilly evening air, I heard my husband say hello to Melissa on his cell and repeat Sean Hughes’ name. How odd, I thought, on a Saturday night to get a call about Sean.
Jim guided me through the back door and inside GET Café where we stood together and he told me the shocking news.
Within moments, the Lower Merion singer-songwriter was by our side with her father who had just been told by her LM friends, after her set, that their Principal, Mr. Hughes, had died. We all consoled each other, as a report confirming details came to our attention.
Now, as I write, the tragic news has traveled far-andwide, with each person who knew Sean remembering him for his kindness, joie de vivre, inspirational motto that “character counts,” and his endless energy on behalf of students and colleagues.
For our family, Sean was a major influence for our sons Bryan and Michael. In grade 10, Bryan studied United States History with Sean who instilled a lifelong interest in him, and continued to stay connected with him through Lower Merion football, basketball, and baseball.
A true testament to Sean’s character is that in 2006, five years after Bryan’s graduation, Sean remarkably counseled Bryan on appropriate graduate schools and wrote letters on his behalf.
Michael, LM Class of 2008 and Varsity Football and Baseball player, first knew Sean as his 9th Grade Assistant Principal and later during his senior year as first-year Lower Merion Principal.
It is really true what everyone is saying that Sean had a prodigious memory and always remembered a student’s name.
In 1980, I had moved over to LM from Harriton to work on building the Latin enrollments, when Bob Ruoff was Principal and Mrs. Dottie Newsome was the super-organized Main Office Secretary.
When Sean started at Lower Merion as a young teacher in the Social Studies Department, we got to know each other through meetings and curriculum committees, plus LM Athletics.
Later, Sean succeeded the veteran Tom McGovern as Athletics Director and there was a lot of overlap for us, especially when Activities and Clubs migrated to his office.
In 2008, I started as sponsor of the LMHS Youth Football Clinic — which is still going — and Sean was instrumental, along with Don Walsh and Jason Stroup, seriatim Athletics Directors, in providing invaluable support and guidance.
One afternoon, after Sean became Principal and I was teaching at Valley Forge Military Academy, we were meeting in his office and I looked up at a huge framed fullstature portrait of legendary Aces Football Coach John “Fritz” Brennan, an image which had escaped my notice in meetings with former principals.
Both Sean and I had been honored as recipients of the eponymous award, so we always had that shared bond.
On that particular day, I expressed my somewhat joyful admiration of the Fritz portrait, especially because my husband had known Fritz and I had cultivated a relationship with his wife Nancy.
Sean literally beamed with enthusiasm and effusively told me how important the legacy of Fritz Brennan was for him. It became clear to me that Sean, within his discipline as an historian, researched and personalized the long, rich history of Lower Merion High School.
With Sean’s legacy in mind, there is a relevant anecdote which emerged out of Rollie Massimino’s tenure and his team’s NCAA Championship win over Georgetown in 1985.
At the time, my husband was Villanova University Assistant Athletics Director and was integral, along with Athletics’ Secretary and Travel Coordinator Joan McGuckin, in planning the team’s travel and the Final Four logistics for the Wildcats’ “National Championship Express.”
In the wee hours of the Championship Game Day, legendary ’Nova Coach Al Severance died in his room of the hotel where we were all staying.
Rollie, well-known for turning lemons into lemonade, declared, just prior to game-time, that during the entire match-up with Patrick Ewing and John Thompson’s Hoyas, somehow Severance would be hovering above Georgetown’s backboard, batting away the shots oneby-one.
A similar image comes to mind regarding Sean, in the sense that he will always be on hand “at and for” Lower Merion, one way or another. Remember, Sean was a proud graduate of Cardinal O’Hara and full of love in the Irish Catholic tradition.
Sean would be the first to say that he got as much back from the people of Lower Merion — students, families, and colleagues — as he gave. That is probably true, and yet there is a lingering sadness and deep sense of loss because we will not be seeing Sean and his smiling eyes in the same way.
At times like this, we can share — for a true Irishman especially — a propitious and well-known “Irish Blessing” to carry Sean on his now “next journey.”
The words which follow are from “May The Road Rise Up To Meet You.” Along with me, shed a tear, as you read the revered verses, now dedicated to Sean Hughes, once-upona-time Lower Merion High School Principal.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains upon your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand. fall soft