Dottie Hughes, 85, retired from teaching 25 years ago, but the impact she had on her students is still alive and well.

Hughes, who taught physics at Huntsville High School, won several awards during her 15 years of teaching, and she has heard from countless students over the years who went on to obtain college degrees in physics.

“One year, the only students working on a PhD in physics at Auburn University were my students,” Hughes said. “They came home for Christmas and told me that.”

Hughes, who lives in Homestead Village, said she started teaching at 45 when her five children were all in school. Going to college was expected of them, so she went back to work to be able to help them pay for their education, she said.

Her first year of teaching, one of her sons was in her class. He was apprehensive before the school year started, not because he didn’t want his mother as a teacher, but because he didn’t want to hear other students saying bad things about his mother.

 “At the end of the year, he told me, ‘Mother, I never heard anyone complain about you. They all loved you,’” she said.

Hughes, whose last name was Dale during her teaching years, said she isn’t sure why the students enjoyed her classes so much, but she said she certainly enjoyed teaching them.

“My teaching philosophy was to love my students,” she said. “I loved my students, and they loved me.”

Hughes had a hands-on lab once a week and used demonstrations in each of her lectures.

Jim Ashburn, one of Hughes’ former students, said her teaching played a big part in why he chose to major in physics.

“The way she taught it, it was something I knew I could do,” he said. “It was fascinating. I always had a tremendous drive to find something new and fascinating, and she had a lot to do with that.”

Ashburn eventually discovered an important superconducting material that allows electricity to be transported through cables without any resistance.

Last year, the University of Alabama at Hunstville had a 25^th anniversary celebration to honor Ashburn and others who helped in discovering the important superconducting material.

“He called me up and said, ‘I want you here when I get this special award. If it wasn’t for you, Mrs. Dale, I never would have majored in physics. I want you on the stage with me, and I want you to say a few words,’” Hughes said. “I think in life, we always want to think we’ve done something to help someone else, and he made me feel like I helped him. I don’t think I helped him that much; he would have done well regardless.”

Ashburn asked Hughes to speak briefly at the ceremony, and he said she was easily the most entertaining and meaningful speaker at the event.

In 1987, Hughes received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching from the National Science Foundation.

She was able to travel to Washington, D.C. to accept the award from President Ronald Reagan.

“As a teacher, everybody loved Mrs. Dale without exception,” Ashburn said. “And it wasn’t because she was easy or flashy or anything like that. She was a good teacher, but there was something intangible about her that inspired all the kids to work hard for her and do well for her.”

Before she began teaching, Hughes devoted her life to raising her five children, doing volunteer work and traveling around the world. She has been to 45 countries and every continent except Antarctica.

All five of her children went to college, and they have 11 degrees between them, she said.

Valuing education started several generations back in her family. Her mother and father both had college degrees, and she said even in a family with seven children, college was not an option.

“When Daddy saw he had all these children to educate, he retired from that, and he moved to Knoxville, Tenn. because it had a university, and he bought a big house real close to the school, and he said, ‘OK, live at home as long as you want to, and you can go to college,’” Hughes remembered.

She attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and majored in chemistry with a minor in physics.

“One of my regrets is that I never did thank my father for that,” she said. “It was just something that happened, and I didn’t realize until later after he died that that was a real intentioned thing, that he wanted to make it easy for his kids to go to college.”

Hughes was married to physicist Bill Dale for 48 years, and when he died, she thought she’d never marry again.

But then she moved to Fairhope to retire, and she met retired minister and widower Ken Hughes at Fairhope Christian Church. Ken died last year after the couple had been married for 10 years.

“He was just as wonderful as my first one,” she said. “I never dreamed I’d find two good men like I did. I consider that one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to me, having those two men in my life.”

Now, Hughes spends her time playing bridge, spending time with other Homestead Village residents and being involved at Fairhope Christian Church.