Hughes’ Leaves Educational Legacy in the Church of God
When reviewing the life of Dr. Ray H. Hughes, Sr., one is astonished at his preaching and evangelism ministry alone. When you add the leadership positions in which he has served—three times the general overseer of the Church of God, chairman of the Pentecostal World Conference, president of the National Association of Evangelicals—any one of these stand alone as lifetime achievements.
But Hughes was a leader in yet another realm: education. On two occasions he served as president of Lee College (University) and one term as president of what is today the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Either of these positions could be chalked up to a pinnacle achievement in anyone’s career, yet they were another ministry service on an amazing leadership journey.
Although one of his many capacities, Dr. Hughes viewed his educational roles with passion and a heavy heart. Twice he was called upon to lead the Church of God’s premier educational institution, Lee University. His first tenure at the helm began in 1960 when he was just 36 years old. He returned again as the school’s president in 1982 for a two-year term.
In 1960, Hughes stepped in when Lee was at a critical point in its history. Enrollment had fallen to a dangerously low number of approximately 300 students. Faculty and student morale was waning. No new buildings had been constructed since the Cleveland, Tennessee campus was acquired in 1947.
For the next six years, Ray Hughes would set Lee on a course of which it had not been before. Still viewed primarily as a small Bible school (just 13 years earlier the name had changed from Bible Training School), Hughes set the college on a course to become fully accredited as a liberal arts institution. It was a process that would not be realized until 1968, two years after he left the presidency, but the groundwork was laid under his leadership.
During those six years as Lee president, Hughes oversaw the start of several student initiatives, including the popular Lee Day weekend, an event which has become the single most important recruiting day at the university. Hughes also initiated a Homecoming weekend which for nearly 50 years has brought alumni back to their alma mater for reunions, fellowship and reminiscing.
New construction was a highlight of both Dr. Hughes’ terms as president. Between 1960 and 1966, Hughes undertook the school’s first major building projects on the Cleveland campus. In 1963 a 78 year-old structure in disrepair on the front campus was razed to make way for a new three-story administration and dormitory building, what is today the Higginbotham Administration Building. Also during his first term, Hughes erected a modern science building which served the campus for more than 40 years until a new science complex was dedicated last year. Between 1982 and 1984, Dr. Hughes raised funds to rebuild the gymnasium into the Paul Dana Walker Arena. He also secured a major donation of $1 million—the first seven-figure donation in the school’s history—to build the Pentecostal Resource Center, which served both Lee and the neighboring Church of God School of Theology.
In 1984 Hughes was asked to fill the president’s role at the School of Theology, what is today Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Under his two-year term, the graduate institution took steps toward further accreditation as a seminary, increased the endowment and pursued further internationalization of the student body.
The legacy Dr. Hughes left and the lives he touched in the field of Church of God education is extraordinary and will live on for generations to come.
–Cameron Fisher, Church of God Communications
