Timothy Robert Hughes

Large-Scale Loving Care
When it came to hobbies, Timothy Robert Hughes had one as big as a house.

He and his wife, Karen, liked to buy tattered older homes and, with elbow grease and loving care, restore them to life.

Take the century-old late Victorian house they bought in 1999 in Madison, N.J. "It had been vacant for many years," Mrs. Hughes said. "Basically, it needed everything."

So the couple put in new Sheetrock, plaster, plumbing, bathrooms and a kitchen. They had experience, having done such work on every home they had owned in 17 years of marriage. This time, their efforts so impressed a local historic preservation society that it gave the Hughes an award last May. "There was a huge banner on the front of our house for a month," Mrs. Hughes said. Still, Mr. Hughes, a currency options trader in emerging markets at Cantor Fitzgerald, had enormous zest for his work and his children, Tim, 15; Ken, 13, and Chrissy, 8. "He always found time to coach all his kids in baseball, soccer, sports," said Donald M. Burns, the best man at the Hugheses' wedding.

Mr. Hughes was thrilled when Ken won a county baseball tournament last summer, cleanly laying down 10 consecutive bunts. Mr. Hughes spent his 43rd birthday, Sept. 3, golfing with Tim. "In retrospect," his wife said, "I'm glad they had that time."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 1, 2001.


Timothy Hughes, 43, kept 'em laughing

Something funny happened when Karen Reimann met Tim Hughes at a party in Spring Lake in 1982.

The recent college graduate told the young woman that he played soccer at the University of Scranton. She said no, he didn't, and told him why. Her brother, Ken, was on the team and also had just graduated from Scranton.

"He didn't have anything to say. He just laughed. It was funny. It was the only time he didn't get one over on me," she said yesterday.

They got engaged five months later, married in 1984, and Timothy Robert Hughes spent the next 17 years making her laugh with his dry, sometimes shockingly blunt sense of humor and his practical jokes.

The last time they laughed together was Sunday, Sept. 10, when they spent the day without the kids at the U.S. Open in New York. The next day, two planes slammed into the World Trade Center. The 43-year-old international currency broker worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 105th floor in the North Tower.

Reimann has had a long wait to hear the words: "Your husband has been found." That call finally came Monday night, when Madison police told her that authorities had identified her husband's body. It gave her a sense of closure.

"At first it was total shock when I heard. Then there was relief. He wasn't missing any more -- he was found and we have some closure," she said.

Mr. Hughes was born in Camden and attended Triton High School in Runnemede, then went on to attend the University of Scranton, where he received a master's degree in business administration. At the school, Mr. Hughes befriended his wife's brother, Ken Reimann, long before he knew Reimann's little sister existed.

"He was always goofing on people and making everyone laugh. He never tried to impress people, and he had such a dry sense of humor," she said. "He could say some things that others would never dare to say and it would go over. He was the kind of person who people always wanted to be around.

"He also was a very, very intelligent guy," she added. "He knew everything and you just knew he would be successful in life."

The couple lived in South Jersey while Mr. Hughes worked at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. In 1994, the couple and their two boys, Timothy Christopher and Ken, and 9-month-old daughter Chrissy moved to Madison. Three years later, Tim landed a job at Cantor Fitzgerald.

The funny father loved spending time with Timothy Christopher, now 16, playing golf. With Ken, now 13, it was baseball, and Mr. Hughes found himself so involved that he began volunteer coaching. He doted on their daughter, reading to her almost every night.

Mr. Hughes also had a passion for restoring old houses. Their 99-year-old Madison Avenue home with stained glass windows is a testament to his skill as a handyman. It needed new bathrooms, kitchen, plumbing and just about everything else. The borough was so impressed with the couple's job that it gave them Madison's first historic preservation award in May.

"We miss him. It's been hard, very hard," his wife said. "You have to carry on. That's what he would have wanted."

Survivors also include Hughes' brother, Jim of Bayonne; three sisters, Elaine Hughes of Pitman, Helen Stoutenburg of Pitman and Patricia Reimann of Chesterfield; and his mother, Anna Mae Hughes of Chesterfield.

A funeral Mass will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m. at St. Vincent Martyr Church in Madison, followed by burial in St. Vincent's Cemetery.