Jeff D. Hughes, Jr.
Inducted 2010
The Forestry-Wildlife-Fisheries Alumni Association at Louisiana State University proudly announces that Jeff D. Hughes Jr. was unanimously elected to the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources Hall of Fame. Hughes will be formally inducted on November 13 in the Renewable Natural Resources Building (formerly the Forestry- Wildlife-Fisheries Bldg.) at the Association’s annual business meeting as part of LSU’s Homecoming. Hughes joins an elite class of distinguished alumni members. He is the first non-academic member. The Hall of Fame is an initiative of the School’s alumni association. Members of the Hall of Fame are recognized for significant contributions to further the mission of the School of Renewable Natural Resources.
A Hammond, La., native, Jeff D. Hughes Jr. served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, stationed in the South Pacific during the invasion of le Shima and Okinawa. Hughes is a 1949 graduate of the LSU School of Forestry and is well known in forestry circles across the United States. He was employed with Gaylord Container Corporation and its successor companies for over 50 years. Hughes retired from Crown Zellerbach Corporation in 1986, where he served as Manager of Environmental Services and Association Affairs. He again retired in 2000 as Manager of Governmental Affairs in Louisiana for Weyerhaeuser Corporation.
On behalf of the forestry industry, Hughes has been asked to testify many times before various Congressional Committees as well as serve as an expert witness on numerous occasions. Crown Zellerbach loaned Hughes to the Secretary of the Army so that he could serve on a three-man blue-ribbon panel to evaluate the Army’s management of natural resources on both military and civil installations. Hughes traveled to Brazil on behalf of Crown Zellerbach to consider purchasing a mill and forest land.
Hughes served on the National Council of the Society of American Foresters, of which he was elected a Fellow. He has served as Chairman of the Gulf States Section of the Society of American Foresters and received its Distinguished Service Award. He received the President’s Award from the Southern Forest Institute. In addition to having served as the president of the Louisiana Forestry Association (LFA), Hughes currently serves on the boards of the LFA and the Louisiana Forestry Foundation. He has chaired several committees, including the Non-Point Water Committee of the National Forest Products Association and the Resource and Environment Committee of the Southern Forest Products Association. In addition to having served as chairman of the Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Alumni Association at LSU, he was named Alumnus of the Year by the faculty of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Management in 1967. Hughes has also presented papers at three of the annual LSU School of Forestry Symposiums. He is a member of the Forest History Society and the Forest Landowners Association as well as a landowner and a tree farmer in the American Tree Farm System.
Having been active in civic affairs all his life, Hughes has given his time as a Cub Scout Cubmaster, and Explorer Scout leader and as a coach to a boys’ baseball team. He was president of the Poplarville, MS Jaycees, president of the DeRidder, La., Rotary Club, president of the Denham Springs, La., Rotary Club and was named Citizen of the Year in Denham Springs in 1968. In Bogalusa, La., where he now resides, Hughes served as chairman of the United Way.
His hobbies include fishing, hunting, golf and gardening. Hughes qualifies as both a Master Gardener and a Master Logger. He served as president of the Bay Tress Hunting Club for 23 years. He is an avid reader, especially of books with historical significance. Hughes and his wife of 60 years, Betty, have two sons, Judge Jeff Hughes III and Paul Hughes and his wife Anne. They have one daughter, Barbara Favre, and two granddaughters, Lorraine Favre and Eleanor Hughes.
