E. Donald Hughes II
Borne the 2nd son of six children to Edward D. Hughes and Inell S. Hughes in West Palm Beach Fla. My Father was an extra board Pullman Car Porter for the Pullman Company and oft times Taxis Cab driver and my mother a registered nurse. Although, only one parent was college educated, both were gifted communicators. We soon relocated to Howard County Maryland, which was primarily rural. After deciding that the construction job I had been working upon completion of high school was not my calling, I enrolled in the University of Maryland at Eastern Shore Md., and then transferred to College Park, Md. where I graduated with a BS degree in Business Mgt. and Transportation. While there, my father was instrumental in securing me a job as a sleeping car porter for the Southern Railway System aboard their Southern Crescent. This proved to be the main financing vehicle for my college education. Hence, I became a 2nd generation sleeping car porter on the last independently owned and operated passenger train in the country and a card-carrying member of the great Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s 1st African American Union, founded by A. Philip Randolph.
Upon graduation, I accepted a position with the Aluminum Company of America in their Pittsburgh headquarters. I moved on to become a Sales Rep. for a major Insurance company in Long Island New York. Later, I moved into Retail Management with a large Consumer Electronics concern, and have been involved in the areas of Real Estate, Excavation Engineering and Telecommunications. I have spent time on contract at the Library of Congress and other areas of the U.S. Government.
