He was at the United Nations when he got a call from Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Maxwell said there was a little committee examining the Deseret News that wanted him to weigh in about the paper.

"I was eventually asked to do some consulting," Hughes says. "I talked to everybody on the paper, everybody who had left the paper and talked to a lot of people around town."

One thing led to another until, in 1997, he found himself sitting across the desk from LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley.

"My wife Peggy and I went together to see him," Hughes says. "By the questions he'd asked me before, I knew he was one of the most extraordinarily astute observers of the press I'd known. And the discussion went very well. Then, as respectfully as I could, I said, 'Might you not be making a mistake putting a non-Mormon in this slot?' He said, 'No. You've lived among us, you understand us and we trust you.' That nailed it."

In his consultant role at the Deseret News, Hughes says he had found the paper to have a special kind of mission. It seemed, he says, "to be a newspaper interested in improving the lot of its readers. And a newspaper can be an amazing instrument for good if it's on the right track. I thought it would be an interesting challenge."

The first task for the newly minted chief operating officer was taking the paper morning. But that was just one challenge. He also saw a lot of unnecessary self-censorship on the staff and a flawed perception among readers that the fingerprints of the LDS Church appeared on every page.

Just his being hired eased many concerns. And the heartfelt plaudits at his leaving show he can look back with some satisfaction.

"John Hughes came to the Deseret Morning News with the highest credentials in the field of journalism, even a Pulitzer Prize," said Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the LDS Church's First Presidency. "He shared his talents freely with his fellow journalists at the News and earned their respect. He has a natural instinct for discovering newsworthy topics and events and converting them into inspired newspaper columns. He also has the ability to teach and to help others develop their skills."

Adds Rick Hall, managing editor of the Deseret Morning News: "Two things come to mind about John's years here. He taught us all that only excellence is acceptable and that our First Amendment rights must always be connected to journalistic responsibility. He instilled those things here and did it with a remarkably warm and human touch."

Needless to say, Hughes will take those qualities back to BYU when he resumes teaching there next fall.

"It's the right time to go," he says. "I'm sad to be leaving because it's so much fun and so gratifying to watch people at the Deseret Morning News turn out the wonderful things they do. We have a terrific staff — very talented writers, photographers and artists. I'd put them up against some of the great newspapers in the country."

He said that if the paper has improved, it's not because people were fired, as has been the case at other papers around the country, "but because people have been able to find their niche."

As a professor, he plans to keep filling those niches.

"Maybe I'll be teaching a few future Deseret Morning News journalists," he says.

And maybe he'll teach the children — and maybe the grandchildren — of those journalists.

What was it the man said?

Never retire.

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E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com