Tribute to Paul Hughes

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In Memory of PaulHughes 
1943-2012 EnvironmentalActivist and VisionaryFounder and President, DeConstruction Services, LLCand ReBuild Warehouse
by Beth Herman
At 7 p.m. on the bone-chilling evening of December 23,2010, when Washington had long since gone for the holidays, and though he had apersistent cough, fever and raging bronchitis, Paul Hughes gave me an hourof his time. It was a phone interview and try as I might to postpone it toanother day, when some semblance of his strained, raspy voice would havereturned, Hughes was intent upon keeping the appointment. Though I pictured thethen 67-year-old environmental activist huddled over eucalyptus-infused steam,swaddled in a polar fleece wrap on the sofa of a dimly lit room, in reality I learned hewas sitting upright at his desk, multitasking, computer humming, lights blazing,as though it was just another day (or night) at the office.
True to his deep sense of humanity and character, somethingrevealed to me not so much by his robust bio and hard-won list of achievements butrather by the unrelenting credit and opportunity he gave to everyone else, Hugheswas a quiet revolutionary. Cuirassed in earth-friendly prose and practices, hesoldiered on, in fact early on, long before concepts like “renewable” and “sustainable”became as commonplace and easy to swallow as butter and toast.
Though legions of green crusaders roamed theplanet, a fierce dedication to recycling, repurposing and renewing people’slives—maybe even more so than the old lumber he pulled out of deconstructedhomes through his Fairfax, Virginia-based DeConstruction Services, LLC—was whatdistinguished Paul Hughes.
In addition to harvesting old materials and making themavailable at supremely reduced rates to the public through his 501(c)(3)organization ReBuild Warehouse, the former nonprofit grant and environmentalservices consultant gave dozens of nonviolent ex-offenders a chance to turntheir lives around. With valuable training andfull-time employment offered through his businesses, Hughes invested in human dignityas much as anything else.
“It’s going 180 degrees against the trend,” he’d said inthat 2010 interview: http://www.dcmud.blogspot.com/2011/01/recycling-lumber-and-lives.html. “Most contractors are trying to get away from employing a lot of people…sothey can offload liability costs, worker’s comp and matching social security.They contract everything out to subcontractors and let them worry about whereto get laborers—often just day laborers to whom fewer laws apply, and who havelittle hope of pulling themselves up.”
His life
Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and marrying hisUniversity of Toledo sweetheart, Linda, Paul Hughes “…had his fingers in somany pies—he just had so many different interests,” according to his wife. Followingtheir 1967 marriage, Hughes was instrumental in setting up Hospice of NorthernVirginia in a former school building—the region’s first hospice. With an eye toenvironmental issues, he also vehemently resisted the Lorton incineratorproject, though sadly lost the battle.
When ReBuild Warehouse, established in Springfield,Virginia 2008, suddenly lost its lease three years later, in typical fashionand wasting no time, Hughes diligently acquired a smaller space as an interimmeasure to continue to serve and educate the community. Staff (largelyvolunteer), hours and convenience were cut back, but he kept moving forward.
Hughes’ good friend Hank Blakely called him “a force ofnature.” A lay minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfaxin which Hughes was also active, Blakely is also on the board of directors ofthe Reston Citizen’s Association, vice president of Sustainability Reston and alsoof parent company the Fairfax Coalition for Smarter Growth—an organizationstarted by  the visionary Hughes.
In his spare time, Hughes spent weekends canvassing fleamarkets and farmer’s markets, handing out brochures about the environment. “Hewas so far ahead of everyone else in his environmental thinking—particularly inthe beginning— it could be frustrating when people couldn’t comprehend hisvision and sense of urgency,” Linda Hughes said.
According to Blakely, Hughes was the "Johnny Appleseed ofnonprofit organizations in Northern Virginia. He put his heart and his moneywhere his voice was on these issues. He absolutely backed the things that hebelieved in,” he said about his friend, who was also Northern Virginia GreenParty chairperson.
Toward the end of our phone interview on that pre-holiday evening, I recall making anote to myself to meet Paul Hughes, but like many of us I simply put it off,content to keep myself updated through ReBuild Warehouse’s e-newsletters abouttheir many challenges and achievements. He died on September 15 from cardiac arrest following abicycle ride with his wife.
With all he had accomplished, Linda said there were manymore things he wanted to do. He could still see ahead. The economy was changingand things were opening up again.
Said Blakely, “It never struck us that Paul would goaway. It just felt like he would always be here.”