About the Author

Nathan Hughes, a Welsh speaking Welshman was born in a coal mining community in Carmarthenshire. From 1942 to 1947 he served in the British armed forces, initially in the Royal Navy and then in the Royal Signals where he was stationed in Italy. On returning to civilian life he attended the University of Wales at Swansea where he graduated in Physics and Applied Mathematics. His engineering training was as an Engineering Cadet in the Royal Navy, an internship with the BBC and a Post Graduate Apprenticeship at the Marconi Company. His professional career started as a Marconi Planning and Installation Engineer where he installed state of the art technical facilities for RAI in Turin, Milan and Rome and television transmitter stations for the BBC and other European broadcasters. He supervised the first Eurovision transmission from the Vatican during an exchange of programs involving 9 European countries in 1954. He participated in some of the first closed circuit television applications of medical and underwater operations. His pioneer work in the industry is cited in “The History of Independent Television” by Anthony Pragnell. He was Senior Engineer for Associated Rediffusion (the first London Independent television company) then Chief Engineer of TWW and General Manager of Wales Television. The two latter stations which were in Cardiff produced a wide range of Welsh language programs, one of which “Gwlad y Gân” (Land of Song) was networked to all other independent television stations throughout the United Kingdom.

His career next took him to Switzerland where he worked in International Marketing for an American company. In 1965, he moved to the United States where he was Broadcast Technical Manager for Chicago’s two PBS television stations. Two years later he joined a major telecommunications manufacturing company in Dallas where as Product Line Manager and then Sales Manager he was heavily involved in work on the world’s first computer controlled short-wave high power transmitter.

Mr. Hughes is a U.K. Chartered Engineer and a U.S. Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (I.E.T.), a long time member of the Royal Television Society (R.T.S.) and the Society of Broadcast Engineers (S.B.E.). He is a former member of the British Institute of Management (B.I.M.), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (B.A.F.T.A.) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (S.M.P.T.E.).

Since his retirement he has been actively involved in Welsh affairs in North America. He was the founding President of the Dallas Welsh American Society, and served on the Board of the National Welsh American Foundation (N.W.A.F.). In 2002 he was invited to be a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. This is the highest honor given to a person of Welsh heritage since it acknowledges the special contribution to Welsh culture, art and literature. Although he could not travel to Wales in 2002 for health reasons, he participated at the Gorsedd ceremony at the Welsh National Eisteddfod in 2004. Since 9/11 he has broadcast numerous commentaries in Welsh on major events in the United States for the BBC’s Radio Cymru service.

For five years he served as Chapter Director of the Emery Reves (North Dallas) Chapter of the International Churchill Society which is now called the Churchill Center. He has held many positions as officer and board member of the Dallas branch of the English-Speaking Union (E-SU) and in 1995 was the recipient of the E-SU’s National Merit Award. As an E-SU Sourcelist speaker he has made presentations at a number of E-SU branches on a variety of topics about Wales and British history.

Nathan Hughes is the author of “Reminiscences of Wales 1924 - 1942” which has received favorable press reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. The book has been published in the USA as well in the UK. It is now in its second reprint in the USA. His wife is a retired college professor and they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in December 2004. They have three children and three grandchildren and although retired are both active in social and cultural affairs and enjoy traveling, history and reading.