Robert P. McHugh was born Feb. 14, 1917 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended Lorus College in Dubuque, Iowa, and the University of Iowa.
He worked for the Associated Press in Baltimore and in South Carolina before joining the Columbia (S.C.) Record as governmental affairs editor and later managing editor.
In 1969, only a few months after McHugh moved to Biloxi to become associate editor of the Biloxi-Gulfport Daily Herald, Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi Coast, taking with it the first home the McHughs had ever purchased and all of their personal belongings.
McHugh put his personal problems aside and led the staff of the Daily Herald through the difficult weeks of publishing a newspaper in a community that had no electricity, water supply, natural gas, telephones, newswire or photo facility. Living conditions were abnormal and working conditions unimaginably difficult, but the Daily Herald never missed a single issue. For three days, the paper was published in Columbia, S.C., by the Herald's parent organization, the State-Record Co., and the issues were flown to Gulfport and from there distributed freely to as many people as could be reached by employees and carriers. Each paper was greeted by the people as a miracle. Each was.
McHugh was key to the planning and coordination necessary for publishing under these extreme adversities — a noble chapter in the history of Mississippi journalism. But his contribution to journalism in the state had only begun.
McHugh was in charge when the Daily Herald conceived and launched its Sunday paper, less than five months after Camille. He directed the staff's move into a new building and led the newsroom through the conversion from hot type to cold. He was the founding editor of the new morning paper, the South Mississippi Sun, when it was first published in 1973. Later, McHugh became executive editor of both the morning and the late afternoon newspapers.
His most significant contributions to Mississippi journalism came not from his managerial abilities but from his typewriter. Through his editorials, McHugh focused readers' attentions on local problems, suggesting solutions. He prodded officials, gave them direction and chastised them when needed. His personal columns were a counterpoint to his editorials, giving readers respite from everyday cares. Day after day, he was the voice of the Herald and Sun.
After retirement, he continued to write columns for the then-merged Sun Herald about his adopted, but no less loved, community of the Gulf Coast and of Mississippi.
He used his literary and artistic talents to enhance the quality of life on the Gulf Coast, serving as president of the Gulf Coast Opera Theatre for three consecutive terms. Collaborating with his friend Lawrence Oden, McHugh wrote the operas “Elegy in Gray” (honoring Jefferson Davis), “Parnell” (honoring the Irish patriot) and “Marie LeVeau” (the New Orleans Voodoo queen).
He died in 1998.
