1. In Memoriam: Delos D. Hughes, Professor of Politics Emeritus

Office of Communications and Public Affairs
November 13, 2025

Delos D. Hughes, professor of politics emeritus at Washington and Lee University, died in January 2025 in Auburn, Alabama. He was 90 years old.

Born July 26, 1934, in Auburn to Dr. and Mrs. Gordon Hughes, Hughes went on to attend Oberlin College, where he received his A.B. in politics. After graduation, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1959 and received his M.A. and Ph.D., both in politics, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 1961 and 1964, respectively.

A specialist in the field of political theory, he joined the W&L faculty as an instructor in 1963 and was named assistant professor of politics in 1964 and professor of politics in 1973. He was a member of the W&L faculty until he retired in 1996.

In 1969, he received a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study analytical philosophy for a year at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, the Conference for the Study of Political Thought, the Southern Political Science Association, the American Political Science Association, the Society of Architectural Historians and the Vernacular Architecture Forum. And he was the author of several books, papers, essays and book reviews.

During his retirement, Hughes nurtured a keen interest in architectural history and published books on courthouse architecture and general architecture in Alabama. In 1997, he received the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians Award for Best Article for "Jefferson's Academical Village," published in Alabama Heritage. After the 2011 death of his friend and W&L colleague Pamela Simpson, Ernest Williams II Professor of Art History emerita, Hughes inherited her collection of Rockbridge County photographs and organized them for the 2015 book, "Architecture of Historic Rockbridge," published by the Historic Lexington Foundation.

He continued his research into architecture until his death. His final book was a biography of William Macy Stanton (1888-1969), an architect who designed hotels and apartment buildings in Philadelphia and family residences in Tennessee, which will be published in November 2025 by the University of Tennessee Press. At the time of his death, Hughes was also working on an annotated book of photographs Stanton had taken on a tour of Europe and on a biography of J. A. Cullars (1854-1923), a builder and architect in Auburn.

He is also responsible for many photographs of Rockbridge County buildings in the Society of Architectural Historians archives.

Hughes is survived by his sister, Kathryn Fullerton, of Auburn.