Local Man's Lasting Friendships Help Lift His Family After Loss

John McHugh, a 1988 graduate, was born eight years after his brother Paul. Because of the age difference, they didn't cross paths much, though oftentimes John stayed in Paul's room. John played baseball, and he liked to sleep.

Later, John settled in Belmont, worked in finance at Fidelity and Thomson Reuters, married his wife Kristin and had four children – Jack, Matthew, Emily and their youngest Molly. He also had a close group of friends, who called him Magoo after the TV show Mr. Magoo from the 1960s and 70s. Paul didn't get to know John's friends, though, until after his brother died of complications from a stroke last August at age 41.

"I never really knew his friends because of my age," Paul McHugh said in a recent interview, "but now I've come to know them and found out what such great people they are, how generous."

The men threw themselves into supporting John's family after he passed, creating a college fund, raising $40,000 with a raffle around the Super Bowl, starting a website.

"Women’s friendships are known for their depth and constancy," Bella English wrote in a Boston Globe column featuring McHugh last month, "women have been helping one another for millennia. Guys get together to watch sports, talk business, drink beer. They generally don’t make chatty phone calls and casseroles."

But McHugh's friends stepped up, and to continue the effort, they, along with supporters from other parts of his life – Belmont, Reuters and St. Anselm, where he went to college – are hosting a fundraiser for the McHugh Scholarship Fund at Freeport Hall in Dorchester on Saturday, May 12. The event will include raffles and a live and silent auction.

"It's nice that we're doing something to honor and remember him," Paul said.

For more information about the scholarship fund and how to buy tickets to the event, visit http://mchughscholarshipfund.com or contact Paul at 781-843-3398 or jlmmchugh@yahoo.com. Ways to help include sponsorships, advertising in the program book, or donating auction/raffle items.