Download the Spring 2005 issue. - Seton Hall University

SPIRIT OF GIVING
Leveraging Their Love of Seton Hall
During Operation Sail in 1976,
Joseph J. Hughes ’71 received a
hush-hush call from the New Jersey
governor’s office. His Springfieldbased
limousine rental firm, Country
Club Services Inc., was asked to line up
14 limousines at a certain hour at Newark
Liberty International Airport. It was only
when the limos reached the airport tarmac
that Hughes learned the reason for the
secrecy: His firm would be chauffeuring
Queen Elizabeth II and her entourage.
Managing the flow of people and
their vehicles — at VIP events, major
golf tournaments, marathons, festivals,
the Statue of Liberty’s re-lighting — is
Country Club Services’ niche. Hughes and
his wife, Lorraine A. Hughes ’72/M.B.A.
’82, founded the company in the early
1970s. They met as undergraduates at
Seton Hall University. She came from
Kearney; he grew up in West Orange and
Orange. Entrepreneurial even as a youngster,
Joe delivered newspapers, then
worked as a caddy and parked cars all
through college. He knew he wanted to
major in business right from the start.
Serving with the Pershing Rifles at
Seton Hall provided Joe with excellent
discipline and honed his team and people
skills, he says. It also gave him a common
interest with Lorraine, a math major on
the women’s drill team.
“When we were married, we made a
decision jointly to take this risk jointly,”
he recalls about starting the business that
he leads as president. Now that Lorraine
is retired from AT&T as a vice president,
she has been managing several of Country
Club’s business operations, Joe relates
with admiration. From its valet parking
beginnings, the Hughes’ company has
become recognized for handling complex
logistics in parking and transportation
services. This winter, while public artists
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s creative team
constructed 7,500 fabric gates in New
York City’s Central Park, bike patrols
hired by Country Club Services directed
the heavy equipment to ensure joggers
could still get around the paths.
Having worked with well-known
artists, actors, golf pros and CEOs, Joe
Bill Blanchard
shares his thoughts about one of the most
remarkable people he knows: Monsignor
Robert Sheeran ’67, University president.
“He’s a very dynamic person, full of life.
I’ve never met anyone quite like him,” says
Joe. “Listening to him, you want to go out
and do more.”
Doing more is what the Hughes do
best. Joe is a member of Seton Hall’s
University Advisory Council and Pirate
Blue, has served on the Alumni Board and
co-chairs the Stillman School’s annual golf
outing. Lorraine was invited to join Seton
Hall’s Arts Council last fall. There’s another
way they enjoy supporting Seton Hall’s
strengths. Together, they have made a
commitment to name a conference room
in the new Science and Technology Center.
The University is “moving forward constantly,
everything’s improving,” Joe says,
“not just test scores but the quality of the
students, not just the academics but the
special events. It seems that Seton Hall
never rests on its laurels.”
Adds Lorraine: “We enjoy going to
cultural events like the Philip and Mary
Shannon Seton Hall Speaker Series. We’re
avid Pirate fans. The school gave me a terrific
education, and I feel now that I’m in
a position to say thank you in a positive
way.” Their gift “leverages back,” she
believes. “It’s an opportunity to take what
Seton Hall has given me, both educationally
and financially, and recycle it into a
new generation of Seton Hall students.”
— Donna Shoemaker
SPRING 2005 21