To The Hand family—Let me first offer myself and my wife’s sincere condolences.

Being a co-worker of Hughie (As we called him) and the manager of the AT&T Softball team known as the Telegraph Tigers, I got to know Hughie quite well. You may have seen some of the comments I relayed to you from some of his AT&T friends in e-mails in which they referred to him as a character-Well I can assure you they were not intended in any negative way. In our bi-weekly calls to one another including my wife, Hughie always displayed care, concern and warmth. He was like a younger brother.

There is one incident that will always remain in my mind. Hughie was our pitcher and obviously a significant part of our team. We were scheduled to play WECO (Western Electric) in a championship game at the Ave  S ballpark in Brooklyn. The whole team was there but Hughie. He was at the Rego Park  ballfield in Queens. We always exchanged good humor and jabs as to who was at fault in him being at the wrong ballpark. He said I sent him there-I felt otherwise.

In closing my wife and I will miss his kindness, warmth and good humor. We loved him.

May God Bless him in eternal peace

Mario & Fran