Hugh Jefferies

Hugh Jefferies – a life well lived

Hugh Jefferies passed away peacefully at his home on March 29, 2026. A memorial service will be held April 11 at 11:00 a.m. at Second Presbyterian Church 318 East 55th Street, Kansas City, Mo.

For Hugh, school life meant sports

Hugh was born January 22, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to John Howard (Jack) and Martha (Patsy) Jefferies. They lived in Narberth, just west of the city. During much of the 1920s and 1930s, Hugh’s father Jack Jefferies was a basketball and baseball coach at Princeton University. Hugh attended local public schools until the eighth grade. Once Jack Jefferies enlisted in the Navy, he was able to get Hugh into the Peddie Prep School in Hightown New Jersey on a work scholarship. Hugh graduated Peddie in the class of 1947. He played varsity football and was captain of the varsity basketball team receiving all-state honours in basketball. In 1997, the school honoured him by inducting him into the Peddie Sports Hall of Fame.

During the summer months of his High School years, he worked for the Township Parks and Recreation and on weeks played baseball for the Narberth semi-pro mainline League. In the fall of 1947, Hugh received a tuition scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and the Sphinx Senior Society. He was also the Captain of the 1950-51 basketball team and the short-stop on the varsity baseball team.

In the summer of his senior year, he spent six weeks as a busboy at the Stevensville Lake Hotel in the Catskill Mountains where he played basketball against other Borscht Belt resorts as entertainment to their guests. This time will be remembered by the 1951 basketball gambling scandals that began with some of the players during that summer in the Catskills.

Marriage, the Navy and young family

On March 16, 1951, Hugh married Mary Ann (Bitsey) Burt at St. Mary’s Church in Ardmore, Pa. Now that he had graduated university and was subject to the draft, he enlisted in the Navy. After completing bootcamp at Bainbridge Naval Station, he was accepted to Officers Candidate School in Newport Rhode Island. Upon completion, he volunteered for the underwater demolition team and was assigned to UDT-21 at the Amphibious Base in Little Creek Virginia. His Daughter Robin was born at Portsmouth Virginia Naval Hospital. After five years of service, Hugh was honourably discharged as Lt, USNR and returned to Pennsylvania where his daughters Kim and Karen were born.

Worklife

In January 1960, Hugh loaded the family into the car and drove to Newport Beach, California to begin work for U.S. Divers, a company founded in 1952 by René Bussoz in Los Angeles to distribute Jaques Cousteau’s "Aqua-Lung" sports diving technology. In September 1968, he accepted a new job with Faultless Starch in Kansas City, Missouri. He later became General Manager of Troug Nichols Service Co. that provided heating and cooling service throughout the Kansas City Area. Hugh then bought Heaven Engineering Company, a small HVAC manufacturers’ representative company. He sold the company after ten years and retired to the family home at Lake Quivira. Although retired from his career in heating and cooling, Hugh began a job mowing the rough at the Lake Quivira Golf Course, Falcon Ridge and for 5 years, the Kansas City Country Club.

For 20 years he worked three and a half months yearly mowing until he was 83 years old.

Following Lewis and Clark to Willapa Bay

In 1996, Hugh and Bitsey together with their daughters Kim and Karen and their husbands (who then lived in the Portland, Oregon area), built a home together on Willapa Bay just north of the Columbia River on the Washington Coast. For 20 years Hugh and Bitsey spent 3 months a year on this beautiful spot with their daughters and family, making new friends and entertaining old ones.

Midlife Sports and Hobbies

In Kansas City, Hugh took up playing doubles tennis and in 1971 he and Bill Cook won the Homestead Club Doubles tournament. He twice represented Kansas in the National Senior Olympics in Age Bracket Tournaments and for many years played in Doubles Tournaments at Lake Quivira with Dr. Mike Cooper.

In his 50s Hugh became an avid bird watcher and amateur naturalist with interest in local wildflowers and trees. Accompanied by his beloved golden retrievers he enjoyed walking the woods of Lake Quivira. He relished numerous birding trips often with Dr. Mike Cooper. Hugh’s life list included 578 bird species in the lower 48 states.

Claridge Court and final years

Bitsey and Hugh moved from Lake Quivira to Fairway where they lived for 11 years. After Bitsey died, Hugh’s daughters convinced him that living alone was not for him. On February 14, 2015, he became a member of Claridge Court in Prairie Village, Kansas at the same time as his close friend Marilyn Lucido. Hugh cherished his time at Claridge Court where he enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones.

Hugh was energetic and inquisitive and engaged in the world around him all of his life. Most of all, he valued his family and friends. We wish to thank the caring staff and friends at Claridge Court, especially Donna Babcock his long-time companion.

Hugh was preceded in death by his wife Bitsey and his daughter Karen Printz. He is survived by his daughters, Robin Jefferies Younger (Dan Younger), Kim Jefferies (Randy Hinkle), grandchildren, Max Younger (Liliana), Kelly Rosenberger (Adam), Raymond Hinkle (Kyla), Edward Hinkle (Guin) and great grandchildren August and Oliver Younger and Charlie Wren Rosenberger.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorial donation to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.