Peter was born in Toronto on September 29, 1952, the oldest of seven children of Arthur and Joan (Little) Hughes. As a child he lived in Kitchener, St. Catharines, Vineland, and Etobicoke, Ontario; Baie d’Urfe, Quebec; and Edmonton, Alberta. One of the formative experiences of his life occurred when he was just one year old: he contracted polio in the epidemic of 1953.

Peter studied mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1973. In the same year he married Lynn Gordon, a fellow student at M.I.T. Peter and Lynn went on to have two children, Paul and Logan.

After working for eight years at various jobs in information technology, Peter returned to school to study for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. He received a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1984, and a doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School in 1986.

Peter served as minister of the First Universalist Church in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, from 1986 to 1999. His sermons often paired a Bible reading with an unconventional text such as a movie or a jazz standard. While at the church he served on the board of several anti-poverty organizations in Woonsocket and provided informal leadership for a community program to provide Christmas gifts for children from needy families. He helped to organize an interfaith group of clergy and lay people representing Judaism, Catholicism, Unitarian Universalism, and several Protestant denominations.

History was an important component of his ministry. Beginning with the history of his own church, he researched and wrote about the history of Universalism in New England. After retiring from the ministry on disability, due to post-polio syndrome, he embarked on a new career as a historian. As vice president of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society, he helped to develop the publishing program, the online discussion list, and the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. He served as editor of the dictionary from 2000 to 2009.

After returning to Canada in 2007, Peter turned his attention to the earliest roots of Unitarianism in the Reformation era. In 2009 he became a Fellow of the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto. With his colleague Peter Zerner, he embarked on an ambitious project to translate the works of the sixteenth-century theologian and martyr Michael Servetus. After Peter Zerner died in 2019, Peter carried on alone until shortly before his own death. At the time of his death he had published two books of translations and had two more in preparation.

Peter was a champion for the rights of the disabled. In 2008, when he was forced to crawl down stairs to a polling station in a church basement, he took on Elections Canada and won in a landmark Canadian Human Rights case in 2010, Hughes v. Elections Canada. The result was nationwide changes to all Canadian polling stations to ensure accessibility for disabled voters.

Outside of his work, Peter’s passion was music. He played the clarinet, recorder, and various reproduction Renaissance wind instruments. He was usually involved in some sort of music ensemble, often as leader. He enjoyed the challenge of arranging music for unusual combinations of instruments. He loved listening to music – classical, jazz, and especially film music – and amassed a collection of about 3000 music CDs.

Peter was predeceased by his parents and his sister Wendy. He is survived by his wife Lynn; siblings Jan, Kate, Mary Jo, William, and Sarah Beth; children Paul and Logan and their partners Caolan and Jae; and grandchildren Jane and Alice.

The family requests that donations in Peter’s memory be made to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre or the charity of your choice.

A celebration of Peter’s life will be held at a later date.