By Msgr. John F. McDonough, V.G., Rector, Atlanta’s Cathedral of Christ the King

On the 30th of March, 1969, Mr. Hughes Spalding, Sr., died. He died (not too far from where he was born on Peachtree Street) in old St. Joseph’s Hospital, an institution he supported generously and untiringly. He was ready to give himself back to his God, whom he had served faithfully and well.

On the occasion of his 75th birthday, an old friend, Mr. Robert Troutman, Sr., wrote of Mr. Spalding:

“With the strength of his family’s faith he was enabled to supply some of Georgia’s dire need for enlightened and constructive leadership. It was fertile soil for his labors for the good of his neighbor.

“No one of his generation has rendered to the people of Georgia greater public service. All phases of their lives have benefited by his influence—government, education, health, philanthropy, religion, agriculture, business, the legal profession and even sports. He was twice Chairman of the Board of Regents: founder of the University of Georgia Foundation; Chairman of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority; trustee and director of foundations and hospitals, of banks and corporations; member of the Democratic Executive Committee; directing spirit behind the local baseball team; successful farmer; counselor to church and business leaders; senior partner in Atlanta’s oldest law firm; and finally the head of the Spalding family tribe. To each he added great strength and leadership, and his labors have brought forth good fruit.”

Everything Mr. Troutman said about Hughes Spalding was true, but above it all he was a consummate human being, an extraordinary man who was honest about life – about his God, his family, and his community of Atlanta and Georgia. He was a warm, productive, loving human being with a delightful sense of humor.

Knowing such a person as Hughes Spalding makes a qualitative difference in our lives. I am grateful to Monsignor Burtenshaw for the opportunity of remembering even though briefly, Mr. Hughes Spalding.

I first met Hughes Spalding on a cold evening in January of 1948 in the old Cathedral rectory. Fresh out of the service, I had come to Georgia as a part of a lend-lease program of the Archdiocese of Boston. I was to stay for five years. Because the welcome was so warm and generous, I have remained 34 years. Part of the warmth of that welcome came from Hughes-Spalding that first time I met him.

The occasion was a St. Vincent de Paul meeting. He and his son, young Hughes, were members of the St. Vincent de Paul Conference of the Cathedral Parish. Mr. Spalding’s greeting was warm and generous and spontaneous. During that first conference I watched with amazement and admiration the zeal and concern of Hughes Spalding and the other members of the conference for the poor, not only of the Cathedral Parish but also of the City of Atlanta.

The conference was an extraordinary one, made up of young lawyers, executives guided to a great extend by Mr. Spalding. Each Tuesday the conference would meet. The members would discuss their cases, and receive new ones. Then they would make their visitations to the poor, the needy, the families who were temporarily distressed.

At this time, the love and concern of Hughes Spalding for the poor was the motivating force of the Cathedral Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. To me, the extraordinary thing was that a man as busy as Mr. Spalding would manifest his compassion and love for the poor so generously and perseveringly. But then “service is found in its tenderest form when we walk with the crowd in the road.”

This concern of Hughes Spalding for the needy was also extended to the sick and the institutions needed to care for them. He was closely associated with the building of the new Grady Hospital, and the addition of St. Joseph’s Hospital on Courtland Street. In these projects and others he took a personal interest. He not only contributed financially himself. He was part of the project and he influenced others to give generously and to be interested in the well-being of those less fortunate than themselves.

Mr. Spalding was obviously a man of compassion, but he was also a man of power. And he used it when he thought necessary. I remember calling him a number of times looking for something to be done. And it was done immediately.

On one occasion when he and his wife, Bolling, were visiting me in Rome, Georgia, a highway sign was misplaced, resulting in Hughes being about thirty minutes late. Upon arriving at the rectory, he explained the reason for the delay. A few days later while driving by that intersection, I noticed that a new sign had been erected. Later on I found that he had called or written Jim Gillis, Chairman of the State Highway Department. The correction was made immediately.

But there was no question that the two most important matters in the life of Hughes Spalding were his family and his Catholic faith. His care and love for Bolling and his children was a byword among his friends. His greatest joy was to be with them whenever possible, having them in to dinner or dining with them. At these times he would delight in telling his nieces and nephews (grandchildren – he was called uncle not grandfather) stories about himself or about the characters he had met in his long life.

Hughes Spalding’s Catholic faith was about as real as any I have ever experienced. He was, for all his wit and humor, a deeply religious man, a man who believed in the importance of Catholic education. He was a product of it. He promoted it whenever and wherever possible. His association with the Cathedral Parish, with Monsignor Moylan, Monsignor Cassidy, Bishop Bernardin, Monsignor Stapleton and myself, was of course a source of pride and pleasure for us, but for him it was his abiding joy. And if, on occasion, the Mass or the sermon or the music were not what they should have been, Hughes would make his feelings known.

When Mr. Spalding was 77 years old, he wrote a two-volume work on “The Spalding Family of Maryland, Kentucky and Georgia, from 1658 to 1963.” It is a history of how the pioneer Catholic Spalding Family in America originated in Maryland and spread to Kentucky, Georgia and other states.

Mr. Spalding wrote this book to perpetuate and authenticate the family record, but also, as he says in the foreword of his book:

“Another reason for this book is my pride in the Catholic religion, which many of us feel is our dearest possession. It is the nature of man to cherish those things which come high and for which he is required to make sacrifices. The things which come easy, go easy, and are greatly under-valued, if valued at all.

“Our religion, and the fact that almost all of us have stuck to it, is one of the big reasons for this book; and I hope to impress on the younger people in our family that it is our greatest blessing. To possess it, you must be educated in it. If you follow its teachings and are a practicing Catholic, it is a tough religion to live up to, but a fine one to die in.”

I was with Hughes Spalding a few moments before he died. I can testify to the truth of these words: He lived in his faith; he died in his faith.