Milford Twp
The Center of Iowa
A Little about the Co-Authors/Editors:
Dale Hughes is a fifth generation Milfordite who graduated with the class of 1955, 2 boys and 5 girls.
Following High School graduation he attended Oklahoma University and obtained a four year degree in Geology. It has been asked how he happened to attend OU and the answer is simple: He had an Uncle who had a degree in Geology from OU and his Dad said that if he can get through OU, then, by golly, I think you can too and so it was OU.
Following a hitch in the Air Force, he undertook a multiyear effort to work at some different job or have a different adventure every summer and a different job in the winter with returning to central Iowa for the fall and spring crop work. This effort was rewarded with jobs on a wide diversity of job titles from wheat harvest hand, to general hand on a freighter, to forest fire fighter, painter's assistant in California, five summers as a Park Ranger for the National Park Service, and one year as a Park Ranger for the Army Corp of Engineers in Mississippi. Thrown in between was a short year as a Semi truck driver, and three years of operating his own equipment on the wheat harvest from central Texas to northwest Montana and one season cutting milo on the South Plains of Texas. He delivered beer trucks, which was a real traveling job, and also spent a winter working in a saw mill in Washington. He had a total of at least 28 different jobs which lead to an accumulation of a wide variety of stories. Also he owned a small airplane in the late sixties which could be a story onto itself.
In the early seventies he returned to school to earn a Master's Degree in Park Administration from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. In the mid seventies he was married and is the father of three daughters and one son.
When not working on the Hall Of Pride display in Des Moines or working on this book with co-editor Jurine Borton, page 211, he continued with participation in basketball and both do slow pitch softball through the present time. Both appear on page 275. They both play on the Ascension Lutheran team which was undefeated, 13-0, in the Cedar Rapids Metro League in 2012 and also won the League Championship again in 2014. Dale was the pitcher.