Manhattan’s Michael J. McHugh was often the quiet man in the back of the room but his gentle nature could not be mistaken for the driving force in many lasting Will County organizations, his family said.
McHugh, 67, died of a sudden heart attack Saturday, a shock that has rippled well beyond the town where he lived.
“He was a giant in the Irish American community and in Will County,” said Pete Hegarty, of New Lenox, who, along with McHugh, is among the principal organizers of Manhattan Irish Fest.
McHugh, and his wife, Mary, joined by another Manhattan couple, Tim and Mary McGrath, launched what would become 23 years of growing Manhattan Irish Fests. McHugh remained an active participant, attending each meeting, maintaining the websites, and offering sage advice and historical wisdom to other volunteers over the years, friends and family said.
McHugh was one of the 14 founders of the Irish American Society of County Will in 1981, and remained the sole membership chair for 36 years, according to Tim Brophy of Joliet, a charter member of the society.
“He’s been a rock in many ways,” Brophy said. “McHugh put together the first website, he put together the first newsletter.”
Brophy credits McHugh for giving the society the stability over the decades. He also was a founding member of the Will County Celtic Fest in Joliet.
“It’s a shocker,” Brophy said of McHugh’s death. “It’s just really sad.”
More Top Picks Paint Roller
McHugh’s interest in all things Irish spanned well beyond the fun times, according to his wife, Mary McHugh.
“While he liked the party part of the Irish culture, he also wanted to promote and pass on the importance of the culture, the history, the great writers, authors,” she said.
Last March, McHugh spoke at historical societies about the 1916 Irish Rebellion, known as the Easter Uprising. Remembering the history of the leaders who formed modern Ireland was important to McHugh, his wife said.
McHugh, born in 1950, came by his interests in Irish culture honestly. His family lineage hails from County Leitrim, Ireland, when in the 1870s, Felix McHugh emigrated to Manhattan Township, purchasing one of the original farms in the area — the very same home where Mike McHugh grew up with his three brothers.
After attending St. Joseph School in Manhattan and attending Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox his freshman year, he enrolled at Joliet Catholic High School where he met a teacher, the Rev. Kevin Shanley, a Carmelite priest known at the time as Father Finbar. Shanley’s own father had been a personal body guard to Eamonn de Valera, who had been a leader in the 1916 Easter Uprising and the first president of Ireland. The two became life-long friends. Like McHugh, Shanley was also a founding member of the Irish American Society of County Will.
After graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, McHugh searched for a career, teaching English at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein before eventually taking over his father’s insurance business.
“He was also in the seminary, which a lot of people don’t know,” Mary McHugh said.
He served on the board of directors for Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois, and was selected as regional director of the year before being asked to chair the at-large committee, where he researched and develop training programs for the state’s required continuing education for all insurance agents.
McHugh also founded the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said Mary Kay Cooper, secretary to Manhattan Township Historical Society. An avid cyclist, he logged over 1,600 miles in 2016, according to a historical society biography. He was an active member of the Knights of Columbus, Joliet Catholic High School Alumni Association and president of the Providence Men’s Club, it said.
Because he worked out of his home, he was able to attend every sports game, academic ceremony and school mass for his children, said his son, Brendan McHugh.
“I think he was the best father we could have asked for,” he said. “He was a quiet but confident man. He made friends wherever he went.”
“He was the best dad in the world,” said his daughter, Mary Kate McHugh. “He was an example of how to put others before ourselves.”
McHugh named his daughter after the character made famous by actress Maureen O’Hara in the legendary John Ford film, “The Quiet Man,” which he watched with his family every March during what he called “The High Holy Days” of Saint Patrick.
“He always kept a fund to go to Ireland,” his daughter said, describing how he would sock money away. “Every time he came back from one trip, he would start planning the next.”
He was not a boastful man, but while telling stories of his children, his daughter-in-law Colleen, and grandson, Finnegan McHugh, he beamed with pride. That is how he would want to be remembered — as “a good son and husband, and the best father and grandfather,” said wife, Mary.
“He was a consummate Irishman,” she said.
“No matter how many times I called him to come jump my car at Providence because I left the lights on in the parking lot, he never complained,” said his daughter, Mary Kate. “He always came over and did it.”
Although they are devastated by McHugh’s sudden death, they are comforted that he did not suffer, Mary said. He accomplished “ordinary things extraordinarily,” and “lived everyday life the best he could,” she said. He was a man of great faith, and lived “a blessed life,” she said.
Likened to his favorite movie, McHugh lived — and died, as The Quiet Man.
Aside from his wife, children and grandchild, McHugh also is survived by his three brothers, Richard, Terrence, and Brien .
A visitation will be held 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Forsythe Gould Funeral Home, 507 S. U.S. 52, Manhattan. A mass will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Joseph Church, 235 U.S. 52, Manhattan.
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.