September 12, 1976
Father Patrick Hughes
Father Hughes was born on January 2, 1905 in Ireland but his family moved to New York when he was two years old. He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph Seminary and St. Bonaventure University both in New York and at Catholic University in Washington, DC where he was ordained at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on June 7, 1931. From 1932 until 1945 he worked in China where he also served as an auxiliary chaplain for the 14th Air Force Headquarters during the war. In 1949 he came to the Diocese of Wichita and was first an assistant in Pittsburg and later a pastor at Galena and Baxter Springs, Florence, and St. Anthony Parish in Wellington. In 1962 he went to his last assignment at St. John Parish in Clonmel for thirteen years. After a fourteen-month illness, he died on September 12, 1976 in Wellington. Bishop Maloney was principal celebrant and homilist at the funeral of Father Hughes in St. John Church, Clonmel. Father Hughes was buried in the St. John Parish Cemetery.