Life Stories
John Hughes
John Hughes (1975 DPhil Management Studies) died on 18 July 2025 aged 82.
John Hughes was born in Welwyn Garden City in May 1943. During his secondary education at the grammar school there, he recalled being captain of the football team and acting in school plays. Neither of these highlights would be foundational in his later career, but he was a committed sporting enthusiast, and he immersed himself in fictional worlds through reading, television, film and theatre.
John read history and geography at Southampton University. Following his BA, he moved to Birmingham in 1967 where he worked in the car industry in Fisher and Ludlow, and where he would meet Pamela. They married in 1969 and, after a transfer to the Oxford office, they settled in Eynsham near Oxford. In 1975 John began a DPhil at Keble College. John enjoyed cycling into Oxford, the reading atmosphere at the Bodleian Library, and the rich research environment at Keble and in Oxford. His thesis, supervised by Professor Peter Mathias from All Souls College, ‘Organisational Metamorphosis 1765–1865: A story of changing practice and theory in the organisation and management of transport companies’ focused on canal and railway companies. His interest in and work on the interface between ‘the creation and application of the technology of organisation and management’ (p5) would remain throughout his working life.
In around 1980, John became a lecturer in the Technology Faculty at The Open University (OU), and the family moved to Milton Keynes. John developed teaching materials and methods for teaching for OU undergraduate modules as well as supervising PhD candidates. His teaching took him across the world, and many colleagues became close friends. John also consulted for a number of large manufacturing companies.
From 2011, John enjoyed a full retirement, spending more time with his wife and family, socialising with friends and his hobbies (although he disliked the word hobby). He was a prolific and creative artist experimenting widely with drawing, painting, woodwork and pottery, producing an eclectic range of well-researched and reflective pieces of art with numerous accompanying art journals. John enjoyed leading local walking groups, he was a life-long voracious reader, and John and Pam took many holidays on the North Norfolk coast.
John died in May 2025 aged 82. He is survived by his wife Pam, their daughters Sarah and Rachel and grandchildren Louisa, George, Albert and Poppy.
Hughes, J. Organisational Metamorphosis 1765–1865: A story of changing practice and theory in the organisation and management of transport companies. DPhil thesis, Keble College, University of Oxford, 1983.
Kindly provided by his daughter, Sarah Mukherjee