Hughes’ death a huge loss for Harrisville, Butler County
On the morning of Saturday, June 1, Harrisville Mayor Gary Hughes was scheduled to make an appearance at the ribbon cutting for the reopening of the Kozy Rest at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park, and he had also considered attending a meeting of the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs in Harrisburg.
“We had discussed the morning at 8 (a.m.). He was supposed to be at the Kozy Rest by 10,” said Hughes’ wife, Mary Ann. “I came back to check on him at 9:35 to make sure he wasn't going to be late, and I found him gone.”
Hughes, 72, left behind a positive legacy with family, friends and the residents of Harrisville as both a local leader and a businessman.
Decades before Hughes became mayor, he inherited the Hughes Penn Gold Ice Cream shop on South Main Street, known to residents as “The Ice Cream Factory” or “The Gut.” The business has run through Hughes’ family since the late 1920s.
“My family used to go to Penn Gold Ice Cream all the time, and I became good friends with him after we moved up to the area,” said Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel, a Harrisville native and one of Hughes’ closest friends. “We became closer friends whenever he and I were working on projects together in Harrisville and with the county.”
Hughes’ wife said a friend of her husband, Paul Lowers, convinced him to pursue the position of mayor, a sentiment which spread like wildfire through the borough.
“They'd even bought signs and put them throughout town,” Mary Ann Hughes said. “And he was just flabbergasted that there were signs around town that said ‘Gary Hughes for Mayor’.”
He was first elected in 2013 in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Annie Richards by a 125-19 vote. Before that, he bested then-incumbent Mayor Jere Donovan in the Republican primary.
In recent times, the borough has had financial struggles, staffing issues, and an inability to retain members on its council. As such, the people of Harrisville turned to Hughes for consistent leadership again and again.
“We would always say there's only a few in the ‘Hughes Hater’ fan club,” Mary Ann Hughes said. “There were only about eight or 10 of them that were members of that club.”
“Gary touched so many lives in a positive way over the years in our area of Harrisville that it is extremely hard to put into words since action speaks for itself,” wrote Doug Dick, emergency medical services chief with the Superior Ambulance Service, on Facebook. “He was always willing to listen and lend a helping hand or give words of support. Gary truly had the community of Harrisville's best interest in the forefront at all times.”
On her Facebook, Mary Ann Hughes shared that one of Gary’s last acts was to put up a large outdoor sign congratulating the seniors of Slippery Rock Area High School’s 2024 class on their graduation. Slippery Rock’s ceremony was Friday night.
“It was so windy, but he was determined,” Mary Ann Hughes wrote.
Politically, Hughes’ reach extended beyond his tiny borough. Along with Boozel, Hughes established a series of rotating meetings where mayors from across Butler County gather to discuss local issues and hash out solutions.
Boozel said the idea started when he and Hughes were chatting at the ice cream shop.
“Gary and I were talking ... and he was wanting to know, how do we revitalize it? How do we grow it?” Boozel said. “I said that I’d just met with the mayor of Saxonburg, Bill Gillespie, and maybe we could get together.”
According to Boozel, more than 10 mayors take part in these meetings, with the mayor of Butler, Bob Dandoy, most recently joining in.
In fact, on May 20 — just two weeks before his death — Hughes attended.
“Since its inception, (Hughes) never missed a meeting,” Boozel said Sunday. “He’d always been a stable presence.”
Whenever Hughes wasn’t running his borough or his ice cream shop, he could be found building up his collection of Lionel model trains, according to Mary Ann Hughes.
“He was a Lionel fan,” Mary Ann said. “He was a train enthusiast. His love for trains ran deep.”
At the time of his death, Hughes was in the second year of his third term as mayor. As of Sunday, it was unclear who will replace Hughes as mayor.
