Terry McHugh, 1932-2011

It is with regret that we announce the death of Terrence “Terry” McHugh on September 18th at the age of 79 after a two-year bought against melanoma.

McHugh was a long-serving member of the Chicago-area piping and drumming scene and is perhaps best known in that circle as the founder of the Midwest Pipe Band Association, a fledgling organization that he resurrected in the 1970s and brought into the formal structure that exists today.

Born in Chicago on September 13, 1932, his family returned when he was young to Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, Ireland, until they moved back to Scotland in 1940s. McHugh was Pipe-Sergeant and then Pipe-Major of the Shannon Rovers Pipe Band. In 1974, he was a founding member and then Pipe-Major of the Invermich Gaelic Society Pipe Band, taking the group to Grade 2 in 1989.  He later started and led the Doonaree Pipe Band.

During his leadership tenure with the MWPBA, McHugh was a driving force behind several years of major pipe band competitions held in Grant Park on Chicago’s lakefront. These contests were and still are considered some of the largest prizes ever offered.

Terry McHugh was known as a committed and humble teacher, organizer, piper and family man. On behalf of the piping and drumming world, we extend our sympathies to Terry McHugh’s survivors and many friends at this sad time.

In lieu of cards or flowers, his family requests that instead donations be made to the Melanoma Research Foundation.