Ed Hug’s UFO cap signifies his membership in United Flying Octogenarians, a national organization of pilots aged 80 or older. Hug’s many adventures over 87 years have often sprung from “wanting to explore other worlds,” whether through flying, scuba diving, sailing, mastering foreign languages or entering a Catholic seminary. Today, the Greenfield man continues to be guided by keen intellect and insatiable curiosity.
When Hug grew up in inner city Chicago, tensions at home and being bullied in his tough neighborhood inspired him to seek refuge in two seemingly disparate elements: faith and science. As a devout Catholic attending a Jesuit high school, Hug went to daily mass, served as an altar boy and sang in the choir.
“I loved ritual and discipline,” he said, “yet I also wanted to understand the world.”
Hug considered entering the priesthood, but his mother urged him to give college a try for one year. He enrolled in Marquette University and “took a lot of science courses,” he said, “but also a course called apologetics, devoted to the pursuit of proving the existence of God. At the end of the year, I felt split: science versus my faith.” He entered a novitiate program at a Jesuit seminary, “where there was a strong emphasis on discipline and on giving ourselves over to the will of God,” said Hug. “I wanted to embrace mystery, yet I also wanted to question.”
After three months, each novice was required to “spend one month in silence, in the dark night of the soul,” said Hug. “We were on our knees by 5 a.m. for a day of continuous prayer. We also made daily confessions, and ultimately, I admitted to my confessor that I didn’t think I wanted to live without women. That decided things.”
Hug pursued a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, after two years, received an offer from the Navy: in exchange for his agreeing to be a junior professional trainee, the Navy paid all of Hug’s educational expenses. That led to employment at Naval Ordnance Laboratories (NOL), where Hug did anti-submarine warfare research and related work for the next 35 years.
“My specialty was underwater signal processing,” he said. “There’s intrigue involved; we looked for clues in what felt like a treasure hunt. My job was to develop more accurate sonar.”
The Navy sent Hug to school for an advanced electrical engineering degree. Meanwhile, he traveled in Europe and visited the NATO-connected Anti-Submarine Warfare Laboratory in Italy.
“I really wanted to work there so I could live in Europe,” said Hug.
The Italian outfit liked Hug’s credentials, and within a couple of years, a position opened up. In the interim, he returned to the U.S. to fulfill his obligation to the NOL.
“After all, they’d sent me to school,” said Hug. “But when offered a chance to head back to Italy, I took it. My second wife and I lived in Italy for eight years.”
One of Hug’s adventures during that time was being posted to a French research vessel. “In the 1990s, our Italian crew was put on the French vessel as explosives experts,” said Hug. “We were part of a fisheries experiment using three approaches to determine fish population.”
Hug explained that bladder sizes resonate at different frequencies, allowing scientists to figure out various types of fish present in the environment.
“In the course of the experiment, two types of transducer sonar, in addition to explosives, were used,” said Hug. As the only crew member who could speak both French and Italian, Hug was pressed into service helping the men understand each other while explosives were being thrown overboard.
In addition to researching what happens under the water’s surface, Hug loves what happens up top, too, especially when it comes to sailing. “A Belgian work buddy and I bought a 23-foot sloop,” said Hug. “Later, I bought my own 32-foot yacht, a Nicholson with six tons of displacement. It was designed to be comfortable even in bad weather, up to Force 6 stormy seas.” A quick internet search revealed that Force 6 causes waves of 8-13 feet, often topped with whitecaps and spray. On land, this would correspond to strong winds that move large tree branches and make it difficult to use umbrellas.
During their time in Italy, Hug and his wife, Martha, had a son, Ezra. When Ezra was five, the family learned that the research director for the Navy lab in New London, Connecticut, wanted to hire Hug, who asked for a six-month delay so he and his family could sail the Turkish Coast, Greek islands and other destinations. Permission was granted, and Ezra’s parents gave him a choice: “Come sail with us, or live with your grandparents for a while.” Ezra chose time with his grandparents, and Hug and his wife had a grand adventure.
Upon returning to the U.S., Hug became part of a team of a dozen researchers in the 3,000-person Naval Underwater Systems Lab. Hug’s younger brother, Bill, ended up in the same lab. “Bill helped develop deep ultraviolet lasers,” said Hug. “Given Bill’s specialties in lasers, and mine in sonar, we were known as the Sound & Light Brothers!” Bill Hug went on to start his own firm, and today some of his innovations exist on Mars in the form of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), an instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover that searches for organic compounds and minerals to identify signs of ancient microbial life.
Tune in next Saturday to learn how Ed Hug reached for the sky, in addition to exploring the ocean’s depths, for adventure and transcendence.
Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope” and can be contacted at eveline@amandlachorus.org.