Congressman, distinguished alumnus dies at 87

William J. Hughes, a Rutgers alumnus and 10-term Congressman who went on to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, died on Oct. 30 in Ocean City, New Jersey. He was 87.

His death was announced in a family statement. The immediate cause of death is unknown.

Hughes, first elected into office in 1974, was a “Watergate Baby,” which are Democrats who took office immediately following the Watergate scandal. Representing the Second Congressional District for the next 20 years, Hughes chaired the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration and the House Select Committee on Aging.

A champion of the environment, Hughes assisted in legislation protecting the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve and fought the creation of floating nuclear power plants off the coast of New Jersey, citing the potential harm to the ocean environment, according to The New York Times. Hughes, in fact, said he resigned from the Prosecutor’s Office to run for Congress on a platform of cleaning up New Jersey’s water.

“Chemicals were being dumped off Ocean County and medical waste off Toms River,” Hughes said to the Press of Atlantic City in 2018, describing the environmental degradation at the time. “There was no regulation at the time of medical waste. In the ocean it was cheaper just to dump it. People were not coming here when notified the beaches were being closed for the bacteria count.”

Hughes also sponsored various anti-crime bills that focused on terrorism, child pornography and drug trafficking. He was also instrumental in passing an amendment that allowed the ban on fully automatic firearms.

Hughes was admired for his ability to reach across the aisle in Congress, working on bipartisan issues with Republicans, something he was remembered for.

“When Bill (Hughes) sat down with you, he listened,” said former Vice President Joe Biden in 2017 while presenting the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award to Hughes at the Hughes Center Honors program. Biden and Hughes worked together on crime bills, addressing sales of assault rifles and armor-piercing bullets. “He reached agreement and moved the process along. It is only through consensus that the United States can continue to function.”

Graduating from Rutgers as an undergraduate in 1955 and Rutgers Law School in 1958, Hughes came back to teach as a professor and became the namesake of the Congressman William J. Hughes Room in the Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus, as well as a member of Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

“Bill Hughes was a distinguished Rutgers alumni whose kindness, good humor and love of Rutgers were always evident,” the University said in a statement. “His standout national and international public service – including as a Democratic congressman who served New Jersey for decades with wide bipartisan support and as U.S. Ambassador to Panama – are an unending source of pride for Rutgers.”

William J. Hughes was born on Oct. 17, 1932, in Salem, New Jersey. He attended Penns Grove High School and then Rutgers University on a scholarship, marrying Nancy L. Gibson a year after graduating college.

He practiced law in Ocean City and served as a First Assistant Prosecutor for Cape May County, New Jersey, during the 1960s. He also served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics in 1972.

After an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1972, Hughes came back to win the election in 1974 and held the position for 10 more two-year terms. Citing his belief in term limits, he announced he would not run again for office in 1994. 

He was appointed to be ambassador to Panama in 1995 by former President Bill Clinton, where he worked on returning the Panama Canal to Panamanian control.

Two South Jersey institutions are in his namesake, the Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes Technical Center and the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.

Hughes is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2018.