John David Milligan Hughes left Pittsburgh long before he and his wife had their first child in 1945, but he never allowed his family to forget where he came from.

"He always talked about Pittsburgh in its earlier days," said his son, Dave Hughes, who was raised in Baltimore but said he and his father went back to his childhood home in Dormont only last year.

"I think his grounding was really in Pittsburgh. That's where he was raised and he grew up at a time when work ethic thrived."

Mr. Hughes died Thursday of natural causes at the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville, Md., but prior to his death at age 87, he spread the Western Pennsylvania work ethic throughout the country.

After graduating from New Hampshire's Dartmouth College and marrying Mary Eleanor Ford in 1944, he held positions in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and in Harrisburg, before settling in Armagh Village in Baltimore.

Even during his career as an executive in the printing industry, Mr. Hughes was known for his sense of wanderlust. As director and president of Harrigan Roller Co., he logged more than 100,000 miles across 10 states in a station wagon to promote his company's products.

After Harrigan was bought by Bottcher America Corp. in 1982, he was regularly dispatched to the German offices to school his fellow executives on U.S. industry.

And in spite of the fact that Mr. Hughes' four children followed in his footsteps and settled across the country as adults, Dave Hughes said the same wandering spirit that sent his father away from home sent him on missions to assure his family maintained close contact.

"We all stayed together because of him. Because of him and my mom, the extended family gets together all the time," he said.

Mr. Hughes was especially dedicated to his 11 grandchildren and would call his four children every Sunday to keep up with their lives. His dedication was so strong, according to his son, that he once drove in a blizzard from Baltimore to New England in order to see one of his grandson's soccer games.

"I know grandparents stay involved with grandkids when they're young, but he stayed involved through their 20s," said his son, of Fairfax, Va.

"Two things meant most to his life -- family and work. He put a lot of time in both."

In addition to his son, Mr. Hughes is survived by a daughter, Marcia H. Feldhaus of Washington, D.C.; two other sons, Tom of Cincinnati and Steve of Boulder, Colo.; 11 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service has been scheduled at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Oak Crest chapel, Parkville, Md.