Kingdon R Hughes passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on September 18, 2014 at a Dallas hospital following complications from pneumonia.  He was 85. He grew up in Pasadena and South Pasadena and was a member of Claremont Men's College first graduating class in 1950. While in college he completed the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the US Army Reserve. He later served in the Korean War as a platoon leader, where he received the Silver Star.

While living in Pasadena he read an article in a 1949 issue of Life Magazine about the oil boom occurring in Scurry County, Texas. He decided that was where he wanted to be. So in 1950, he and some friends drove across the country on Route 66 and was dropped off in Amarillo and hitchhiked to Midland. His first job was as a trainee in the land department of Stanolind Oil and Gas (now BP Amoco). In 1960 he struck out on his own to become an independent landman, where he began to buy minerals and put together oil and gas deals. In Midland, Texas in 1962, he co-founded The Subsurface Library with Dick Rousselot (SPHS '43) because at the time, there were no other geological data libraries open to independent oil operators. The Subsurface Library is now the premier petroleum data library in the Permian Basin.

After succeeding as an independent oil and gas operator for almost 40 years, King pursued a new interest in 1988 in cellular telephones and wireless communications, while continuing to be active in the oil and gas business. He attributed his move into telecommunications to a serendipity award of a cellular license through a lottery held by the FCC. He parlayed that license into a business that he sold to McCaw Cellular/AT&T in 1995. He moved to Dallas in 1996 so he could be closer to his various other wireless interests. King spent his last 20 years as an early stage angel investor in various high-tech start-ups around the country, all the while he continued to manage the library, purchase minerals and participate in oil deals.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Mary, his sons Branford and Whitney, grandson Kingdon, and brother, Kevin '46.

Kevin Hughes '46