Origins: 1905-1953
Howard Hughes, the brash and brilliant scion of a Texas entrepreneur, parlayed a relatively modest inheritance into a fortune. A man of restless intellect, great energy, and diverse talents, he dabbled in movies; designed, built and raced airplanes; made TWA a premier international airline; and nurtured the Hughes Aircraft Company into one of the country's largest and most important defense contractors. Although in his later years Mr. Hughes retreated into a reclusive existence dominated by illness, his life was nonetheless one of remarkable achievement.
It is likely that the creation in 1953 of the medical institute that bears his name will be Mr. Hughes' most enduring accomplishment. His vision for his scientific philanthropy was neither modest nor ordinary: He wanted his medical institute to be committed to basic research, to probe "the genesis of life itself."
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| 1905 |
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., is born in Houston, Texas. |
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| 1924 |
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| 1925 |
Mr. Hughes' will, written just before his first marriage, provides for the creation of an institution to support medical research: [My] Executors shall cause to be created a corporation… the objects and purposes of which shall the prosecution of scientific research… [It] shall be devoted to the search for and development of the highest scientific methods for the prevention and treatment of diseases. |
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| 1926 |
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| 1932 |
In a rented corner of a Lockheed Aircraft Corporation hangar in Burbank, Mr. Hughes starts the Hughes Aircraft Company as a division of the Hughes Tool Company and begins research on military aircraft. |
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| 1946 |
Dr. Mason oversees Mr. Hughes's long and difficult convalescence following the crash of his XF-11 experimental photoreconnaissance plane in Beverly Hills on July 7. Their conversations turn again to medical research. |
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| 1947 |
As Dr. Morgan later recalled, a conversation takes place in an airplane hangar in which Mr. Hughes describes his objective for a medical research organization: “He said he wanted to set up a Research Institute and operation in the field of medical sciences—he emphasized that he was interested in basic research, in probing into the genesis of life itself.” “Of course, he would like to discover a new antibiotic that would cure thousands of people, but he knew that the basic sciences must be cultivated and he [was] willing to be patient in relation to the yields from his efforts. He [felt] that properly supported research [would] produce big dividends even though they [might] not be spectacular.” In a planning memorandum, Dr. Gregg expresses the view that the proposed institute should be affiliated with a university program of medical education and be linked with teaching hospitals. He also draws a clear distinction between an institute and a foundation: “The word institute implies a specific steady operating organization with its own laboratories and not a general program of giving money away.” These concepts strongly influence the development of HHMI. |
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| 1951 |
Six physician-scientists are appointed as Howard Hughes Medical Research Fellows and funded personally by Mr. Hughes; he eventually supports a total of 15 fellows. The first six are Frank Davis, Jr., M.D., Howard Goodman, M.D., Alexander Leaf, M.D., Robert Nelson, Jr., M.D., William Scarborough, M.D., and Bert Vallee, M.D. |
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| 1953 |
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Hughes Aircraft Company are chartered in Delaware on December 17. The charter states: The primary purpose and objective of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute shall be the promotion of human knowledge within the field of the basic sciences (principally the field of medical research and medical education) and the effective application thereof for the benefit of mankind.Upon the creation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Mr. Hughes is its sole trustee. All 75,000 shares of the Hughes Aircraft Company stock are now owned by HHMI, and a portion of the company's profits will begin to be used for medical research. |
Upon his father's death, Mr. Hughes inherits a major interest in the Hughes Tool Company.
He acquires control from other relatives by buying their shares of the company.
Mr. Hughes first discusses medical research with Verne R. Mason, M.D. After receiving his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine, Dr. Mason was a resident at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He served with distinction in the famous World War I
Johns Hopkins medical unit. In 1921, he entered private practice in Los Angeles,
where he became a clinical professor at the University of Southern California Medical School. While treating Howard Hughes after he
was nearly killed in an airplane accident in 1946, Dr. Mason formed a lasting friendship with the aviator, and Mr. Hughes
sought his help in establishing the Institute. As chairman of the Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Mason was a vital link with managers
of the Hughes Tool Company in planning and directing the new philanthropy.
Mr. Hughes begins discussions that continue for several years with Dr. Mason, Alan Gregg, M.D., of the Rockefeller
Foundation, and Hugh Morgan, M.D., of Vanderbilt University (left),
to seek advice on how best to support medical science.