Calvin T. Hughes Jr., M.D., 88, of West Hartford died at his home on Jan. 26, 2015. Dr. Hughes was a retired ophthalmologist who practiced in Hartford and was a longtime summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard.
He grew up in Southington, Conn., and was a 1944 graduate of Loomis School in Windsor, Conn. He served with the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II, prior to graduating from Yale University, class of 1950, and Harvard University Medical School.
After internships at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., Cal went to study ophthalmology and do his residency at Washington University in Saint Louis, Mo., prior to setting up practice in Hartford.
The son of Calvin Thomas Hughes and Florence Whiting Hughes, his Yale connection goes back one generation to his father, whereas his Harvard tradition dates to 1653, when his ancestor Samuel Whiting Jr. was graduated.
The year after young Samuel’s graduation, in 1654, his father, the Rev. Samuel Whiting, who received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, was named an overseer of Harvard College. Samuel the elder began as a pastor in Lynn in 1636, and became a close colleague of the Rev. Increase Mather and his son the Rev. Cotton Mather, writing sermons in both English and Latin. All three of his sons went to Harvard.
Another ancestor, William Whiting, Harvard class of 1833, left the college a $5,000 endowment so other direct descendants of Samuel could have the benefit of a family scholarship.
Dr. Hughes was an avid sailor, sailing his 40-foot Swedish-built sloop Syrinx out of Vineyard Haven for many years. He was a licensed pilot, a world-class skier, skiing the Swiss and Austrian Alps as well as in Colorado and Utah. He also excelled as a classical pianist and was devoted to all animals, especially birds.
He was a world traveler, visiting all seven continents, and did a term of service on the international charitable hospital ship Hope, and was an innovator of cornea transplant surgery in Hartford, where he was a prominent ophthalmologist for decades.
He is survived by cousins Lucia Emily Doud Wallace of Willsboro, N.Y.; Dr. Cynthia Day Wallace, Ph.D., Cantab, of Willsboro, N.Y. and Geneva, Switzerland; Margaret Ellis Wood of Philadelphia, Pa.; John Arden “Jib” Ellis of Martha’s Vineyard; and Calvin Gogerty of Idyllwild, Calif.; and several close friends.
Services and burial in the family plot will be private. Memorial gifts may be made to the United States Foundation of the University of the Valley of Guatemala, P.O. Box 30, Princeton, NJ 08542, of which Dr. Hughes was a benefactor because of his interest in the Mayan people. Taylor & Modeen Funeral Home, West Hartford has care of arrangements.