Slipstream - February 2018

50 Years With PCA: Bill and Hertha Hughes
As told to Carey Spreen, Region Secretary
ill Hughes became interested in a VW after
B
he graduated from high school in Joliet, IL
in 1956. That summer, on a European tour,
he enjoyed touring the Volkswagen factory
in Wolfsburg, Germany. So when it came time to buy
his first car, he purchased a ’61 VW Beetle.
Following graduation from the University of Illinois
– Champaign/Urbana with a BA in Mathematics and
Physics, Bill went to work for Boeing in Seattle on the
Minuteman project. With his Beetle’s manual transmission,
a 1200cc engine, and 40 horsepower, Bill had no
problem climbing the steepest Seattle hills with ease.
But whenever he took the Beetle for service at University
Motors, he couldn’t help but notice the Porsches
on the showroom floor; in particular, there was a 1962
Roadster that caught his eye.
In 1964, Bill transferred with Boeing to Huntsville,
AL to work on the Apollo program, doing Saturn V firststage
trajectory design. By 1965, he was making $8,800
a year, while the base price of the 1965 356SC coupe
was about $4,700, so he figured he could finally afford
one. Conveniently, there was a Porsche dealer, Continental
Cars, in Huntsville, so he bought the car you see
in the photo accompanying this article: a Dolphin Grey
1965 356SC. (Bill wanted a silver one, but Porsche was
experiencing issues with the silver paint, so Dolphin
Grey was the replacement color.)
Bill was particularly excited
that his 356SC represented the
performance and development
peak for the Typ 356 model in
its last year of production, having
been produced for 17 years,
from 1948-1965. He named his
car the Grey Ghost after one of
his favorite ‘50s TV shows (The
Gray Ghost), about Major John
Mosby, whose Mosby’s Raiders
created havoc behind Union
lines in the Civil War.
In 1967, Bill met with a
group of Porsche owners in
Huntsville, who petitioned PCA
to form a local region. In 1968,
PCA chartered the Heart O’ Dixie
Region, based in Huntsville,
replacing a dormant region formerly
based in Birmingham. It
included Alabama, Mississippi,
southern Tennessee, and west
Florida. Bill was one of the 15
6 February
Bill and Hertha Hughes with their grandchildren
charter members. To communicate with its far-flung
members, Bill volunteered to write a mimeographed
newsletter, which he named Der Wanderer. Bill also
served as President of the Heart of O’ Dixie Region in
1970.
It was during this period that Bill met Hertha in
Huntsville, after she returned in 1967 from her Fulbright
Scholarship in Applied Mathematics in Germany.
She also drove a VW Beetle, purchased in 1966.
In Huntsville, Hertha went to work for IBM’s Federal
Systems Division as an engineer, doing flight program
design work for the Saturn V rocket, supporting multiple
Apollo missions (including Apollo 11) as well as
the Skylab program. As the space program was winding
down, Bill took an educational leave of absence
in 1970 from Boeing, returning to graduate school at
the University of Michigan. Bill and Hertha married
in 1971 and moved together to Ann Arbor, MI, so Bill
could complete his master’s degree in Public Policy.
Hertha transferred with IBM as a systems engineer into
a branch office in Detroit, supporting Chrysler and
Education customers. After graduation, Bill was hired
by U-M in their Academic Planning Office.
While they lived in Ann Arbor, the Hughes were in
the PCA Southeast Michigan Region. At this time, the
356 Registry was formed to perpetuate interest in the
Typ 356. It is much more informal
and less competitive than
PCA. From Ann Arbor, they
enjoyed local 356 Holidays,
essentially long weekends, to
Columbus, OH and Indianapolis,
IN, where they were able to
drive their car on Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. What a thrill!
Best of all, their son Erik was
born in 1974, and their lives
were enriched and transformed
forever.
For career opportunities, the
Hughes made two more moves.
In 1980, they moved to Darien,
CT where they were in the PCA
Connecticut Valley Region. Bill
joined Columbia University in
NYC, and Hertha worked at
IBM’s Data Processing Division
HQ. Finally, in 1983 they moved
to Dallas and the Maverick Region.
Here Bill joined SMU and
Hertha managed several IBM