Edna Hatcher Hughes was a pilot and graduate of the USC School of Dentistry more than a decade before the 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote.

Photos Courtesy Hughes Family

The Hughes Scholarship will be a full-tuition, four-year scholarship for a female dentistry student.

Edna Hughes was one of the first women to graduate from the dental school in 1909. (In 2004, women comprise between 40 to 50 percent of all dentistry classes.) After graduation, she opened a dental practice in Pasadena and retained it until 1927, when she left to raise her two sons.

In 1945, Hughes returned to dentistry, working for the Alhambra School District where she opened its first dental clinic for children in 1947. She left the clinic and joined Floyde Hogeboom in his Los Angeles practice, where she continued to treat children.

“Dr. Edna Hatcher Hughes was a pioneer in her chosen profession of dentistry,” said Dean Harold Slavkin. “It was very unusual for women to pursue dentistry in those times, and I am sure she was a remarkable person.”

In 1953, Dr. Hughes retired for the second time. In 1971 she moved to Midland, Texas to be near her son, Kingdon. She passed away in 1975.

“My mother was a very strong woman with unwavering spirit for adventure,” Hughes said. “It is difficult to describe what an incredible mother and person she was, or to list here her many accomplishments - not the least of which were her pride and love for USC.”

Kingdon Hughes graduated from Claremont McKenna College, where he majored in business and economics, in 1950.

After graduation - and spurred by a 1949 Life magazine article on the discovery of a large oil field in West Texas - he moved to Midland, Texas, to acquire land for mineral rights. After working for Amoco and succeeding as an independent oil and gas operator for many years, Hughes pursued a new interest - cellular telephones and wireless communications - while continuing to be active in oil and gas exploration.

A pioneer in the cellular network business, he began Ocean County Cellular in New Jersey. He sold his company in 1995 and established Rush Network, a nationwide wireless bandwidth company.

“We are very proud to have an endowed scholarship designated for female dental students, in honor of one of our first woman graduates,” said Dean Slavkin. “We are grateful to her son, King Hughes, also a pioneer in his own right.”