Background
He was born into an Irish-American family on August 10, 1909, in Florence Township, New Jersey.
He was born into an Irish-American family on August 10, 1909, in Florence Township, New Jersey.
Hughes graduated from Saint Joseph"s College in Philadelphia and the New Jersey Law School, now Rutgers School of Law–Newark.
Hughes is the only person to have served New Jersey as both Governor and Chief Justice. He was a federal prosecutor at the United States. Attorney" General’ s Office for the District of New Jersey, county court judge from 1948–1952, and a superior court judge from 1952–1961. After serving as Governor of New Jersey from 1962 to 1970, he served as the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1973–1979, having been nominated for the post by his successor, William T. Cahill.
When Hughes was Chief Justice, the court issued a unanimous ruling in the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, allowing an individual the right to refuse medical treatment and the right of a guardian to exercise that right if the patient cannot.
Hughes was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New Jersey in 1948 (as an alternate), 1968 and 1972. Hughes was one of three final candidates considered by Vice President and Presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey to be the Democratic Party"s nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1968.
He died of congestive heart failure in 1992 in Boca Raton, Florida. He was interred at the Saint Mary"s Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey in Trenton, New Jersey.
The building in Trenton, New Jersey that houses the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety (headed by the Attorney General), the courtroom, chambers and offices of the State Supreme Court, the courtroom and several chambers and offices of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, and the administrative headquarters of the statewide court system, was dedicated in 1982 as the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, in his honor.
Several of Hughes" children have become prominent in New Jersey law and politics. Murphy placed third in the 1997 Democratic primary for Governor of New Jersey. A son of Richard Hughes, John Hughes, was a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, presiding in Trenton, before retiring in February 2009.
Another son, Brian M. Hughes, is the elected County Executive of Mercer County.
He was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity.