Marcellus Christian Hughes – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

by

From a contemporary press report:

Marcellus Christian Hughes, 89, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who was an aviation accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board from 1961 to 1971, died October 29, 2002, at a nursing home in Greenwood, Delaware. He had congestive heart failure.

Colonel Hughes was in the Army from 1941 to 1961. He was captured while on a reconnaissance mission in North Africa during World War II and spent two years as a German prisoner of war in Poland. He escaped in February 1945 as the Soviet army pushed west.

Most of his Army career was spent as a small-craft pilot. His final active duty assignment was at Fort Rucker, Alabama, as a safety analyst with the Army’s aviation accident research board.

He was a native of Lynchburg, Virginia, and a graduate of the old Devitt Preparatory School in Washington. He attended the University of Virginia.

He had a home in the Washington area from the early 1950s to 1997, when he moved from Arlington to Bethany Beach, Delaware. In Delaware, he helped run a family guest house called “Journey’s End.”

His honors include the Transportation Department’s Distinguished Service Award.

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Carolyn Bell Hughes, a former Washington Post reporter, of Bethany Beach; a daughter, Marcella Hughes Sharp of Bethany Beach; and two grandsons.

A son, Christian B. Hughes, died in 1999.

HUGHES, MARCELLUS C. (Age 89)

Of Bethany Beach, Delaware, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and safety analyst with the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C. died Tuesday, October 29, 2002 at Country Rest Home, Greenwood, Delaware.

Survived by his wife, Carolyn Bell Hughes; one daughter, Marcella (Hughes) Sharp; both of Bethany Beach, Delaware, and two grandsons, Nathaniel B. Hughes-Sharp, Newark, Delaware, and Benjamin M. Hughes-Sharp, Brooklyn, New York. Predeceased by his son, Christian B. Hughes in 1999.

Interment at Arlington National Cemetery, with military honors on November 12, 2002 at 2 p.m.

HUGHES, MARCELLUS CHRISTIAN

  • LTC   US ARMY
  • VETERAN SERVICE DATES: 02/19/1942 – 07/01/1961
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 12/09/1912
  • DATE OF DEATH: 10/29/2002
  • DATE OF INTERMENT: 11/12/2002
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 68  SITE 1142
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Read our general and most popular articles

Leave a Comment