Richard Joseph Hughes was born 10 August 1909, in Florence, N.J., the son of Richard P. Hughes, mayor of Burlington. Richard J. Hughes attended St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia and the New Jersey Law School, now a part of Rutgers University. He became involved in politics, working on Frankiln D. Roosevelt's campaigns in the 1930s and serving as Mercer County Democratic chairman in the 1940s. After working for the United States Attorney for New Jersey, the Mercer County Court, the Superior Court, where he headed a study that led to revisions in the state's system for dealing with juvenile offenders, he was appointed to the Appellate Division of Superior Court in 1957 before leaving to enter private practice.

In 1961 Mr. Hughes was selected as the Democratic party candidate for the office of Governor of New Jersey. He defeated Republican Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell on a platform that focused on state needs. Once in office, Mr. Hughes pushed a bond measure that was defeated and introduced legislation to create a state income tax, which was delayed until after the next gubernatorial election. In Richard Hughes' 1965 campaign, running against Republican State Senator Wayne Dumont, taxation was a major issue, as was the controversial statement by a Rutgers professor on the war in Vietnam. After winning re-election, Mr. Hughes again focused on income tax legislation, which was narrowly defeated.

After leaving office in 1970, Richard Hughes worked with the American Bar Association before being named Chief Justice of the New Jersey State Supreme Court by Governor William T. Cahill in 1974. As Chief Justice, Mr. Hughes handed down decisions with far-reaching impact, including stepping into the struggle between Governor Brendan T. Byrne and the state legislature regarding a state income tax, forcing a decision that was made in favor of the tax, and deciding in favor of the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan in their case to remove their comatose daughter from life support, expanding the rights of individuals or their guardians to refuse medical treatment.

Mr. Hughes was also a delegate for New Jersey to the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and 1972.

Richard Hughes married Miriam McGregory in 1935 and the couple had four children. Miriam Hughes died in 1950. In 1954, he met Elizabeth Sullivan Murphy, a widow with three children; they married in 1955 and had three children. Several of Richard Hughes' children and step-children have become involved in New Jersey law and politics, including Michael Murphy, a prominent lobbyist who was previously the Morris County Prosecutor; John Hughes, a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey; Brian M. Hughes, the elected County Executive of Mercer County.

Richard J. Hughes died 7 December 1992 in Boca Raton, Florida.