Diebold Ellsworth Hughes, a retired Edgewood Arsenal chemist who founded a Northeast Baltimore real estate firm, died of a heart attack Wednesday at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was 83 and lived in Morgan Park.
Born in Milton, N.C., he was the son of Adolphus and Katie Hughes, who owned and operated a tobacco farm near the Virginia-Maryland border.
āAs a young man, he would go with his father to neighborhoods in Danville, Va., where they would barter and peddle produce from the family farm,ā said his son, Roger Hughes of Baltimore. āHe watched his father develop relationships with business owners and families who extended his family credit and sold them land. This was a source of inspiration for him later on in life.ā
He earned a chemistry degree from what is now North Carolina Central University in 1957. He came to Baltimore during his college summers and worked at Bethlehem Steel and stayed with a sister who had moved here. He then served in the Army, moved to Baltimore and bought a home through a veteranās mortgage program.
He became a Department of Defense chemist at Edgewood Arsenal, where he worked for the Armyās chemical weapons detection division for 32 years.
As a sideline to his work at Edgewood, Mr. Hughes began selling real estate in 1962. He was initially an agent for the Mann Agency. He worked alongside his wife, the former Barbara Graves, who initially was his office manager, and had an office at his home, then located on Ready Avenue in Govans.
āHe had a dream of making a fortune, and he listened to his father who told him to āstay on his books,āā said another son, Jerome Hughes of Asheville, N.C.
In 1966, he founded the Hughes Realty Co., a brokerage now located on East Belvedere Avenue in Northeast Baltimore.
āHe was a quiet man who kept to himself and sold properties in Northeast Baltimore,ā said James Crockett, a former real estate agent in the African-American community and former president of the Board of Fire Commissioners. āHe was a wonderful person and had a fine family, too.ā
Family members said that although Mr. Hughes encountered discrimination in selling real estate in the 1960s and 1970s, he did not complain and chose to work things out for himself.
āHe never complained. Dad was really good at making people feel comfortable,ā Jerome Hughes said. āHe had the gifts of personality and discernment. He could win people over and gained the confidence of white home owners who might be selling their homes. He made them realize it was good for them to hire a good black sales agent.ā
His son said his fatherās turning point occurred when he got his brokerās license and he established an agency with other people working with him.
āHe was a pioneering African-American broker, and he went on to have white agents work for his agency,ā Jerome Hughes said. āMy father displayed courage and tremendous wisdom. He also had a detailed knowledge of programs that were out there to help former renters buy their own homes.ā
Denise Hairston, a marketing coordinator at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, recalled Mr. Hughesā ability to work with new buyers.
āHe was great with first-time home buyers,ā she said. āHe had a real compassion for the community and the people he was helping.ā
Mr. Hughes spent his free time with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He also liked bargain hunting with coupons at grocery stores and hosting backyard cookouts.
A funeral will be held at noon Saturday at Union Baptist Church, 1219 Druid Hill Ave., where he had been president of its Welcome Circle. As a young man, he had taught Sunday school at New Haven Baptist Church in Milton, N.C.
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In addition to his wife of 54 years and his two sons, survivors include two additional sons, Rodney Hughes of Baltimore and Carlton Hughes of Sacramento, Calif.; three sisters, Katie Richmond of Milton, N.C., Martha Lee of Baltimore and Carolyn Bigelow of Teaneck, N.J.; 13 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.