Charles Evans Hughes, Jr.

Charles Evans Hughes Jr. (November 30, 1889 – January 21, 1950) was the United States Solicitor General in 1929-1930.

As a young man, Hughes was an honor graduate of Brown University where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. After Brown he attended the Harvard Law School, serving as the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review during his third and final year there. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1912.

Admitted to the bar in 1913, Hughes was secretary to New York Judge (and future Supreme Court of the United States Justice) Benjamin N. Cardozo from 1914 to 1916. In 1914 Hughes was married to Marjory Stuart.

After practicing corporate law briefly, Hughes joined the United States Army as a private shortly after U.S. entry into World War I. Serving in field artillery, he was eventually commissioned a second lieutenant on July 12, 1918. He served as an instructor at the artillery school at Saumur and was assigned to the intelligence section of the AEF headquarters in February 1919. He was then assigned to the 77th Division as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Pelham D. Glassford. He returned to the United States on April 29 and was discharged on May 9, 1919.

Upon returning from the war, Hughes resumed the practice of primarily corporate law. Hughes practiced in the firm founded by his father, Charles Evans Hughes Sr., then known as Carter, Hughes & Cravath (now known as Hughes Hubbard & Reed).

Appointed Solicitor General by Herbert Hoover, Hughes was compelled to resign when Hoover nominated Hughes's father to be Chief Justice of the United States, in order to avoid conflict of interest. Hughes re-joined Carter, Hughes & Cravath. He also served on the board of directors of New York Life Insurance Company, 1930-1934. Hughes was the father of the noted historian and activist H. Stuart Hughes, and Charles Evans Hughes, III, an architect, and two daughters, Helen Hughes and Marjory Bruce Hughes.

Judge Learned Hand once observed that Charles Evans Hughes Sr. was the greatest lawyer he had ever known, "except that his son was even greater."

He died of a brain tumor on January 21, 1950 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.