Ivor W. Hughes, Tobacco Firm President, Dies

Ivor Wallace Hughes, the Welsh-born chairman and chief executive officer of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the nation’s third largest cigarette manufacturer, has died at Humana Hospital Suburban.

He was 59 and the cause of his death Friday was not disclosed.

The Oxford-educated Hughes was an experienced tobacco researcher in England when in 1970 he joined Brown & Williamson, which produces Kool, Barclay, Belair and Viceroy cigarettes.

He became corporate research director in 1972, was named president and chief executive officer in 1979 and chairman in 1980.

Hughes led Brown & Williamson, the nation’s third largest cigarette manufacturer behind R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, through one of the industry’s most difficult periods.

In response to declining sales and market share, Hughes oversaw the phase-out of Brown & Williamson’s Louisville manufacturing plant, which closed in 1982. He also led the company into structural reorganization and expansion into generic cigarettes and new product lines.

Hughes recently became chairman of the executive committee of the Tobacco Institute, the industry’s lobbying arm in Washington. He also was a member of the Conference Board, the Brookings Institute and the board of trustees of the National Urban League.