Successful banker Edward E. “Ed” Hughes served his country as a young man during World War I, and he and his wife, Ethel, did much to benefit The University of Tulsa during the remainder of their lives.

Ed was born in the small town of La Monte, Missouri, in 1896. He moved to Tulsa after serving in World War I, marrying Ethel Parish Wilkins of Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1933.

Hughes began his career as a loan officer. He clearly had much skill, as he went on to found Farmers and Merchants Bank in Tulsa in 1946, with the backing of a small group of Tulsa-based investors. Ed initially operated the bank out of a one-room office with five employees. Tulsa was growing rapidly, and Ed opened with the goal of serving businesses and consumers in the eastern part of the city.

Farmers and Merchants Bank flourished under Ed’s leadership. While it changed ownership and assumed a new name several times over the ensuing decades, the bank endured through many changes in U.S. banking laws and regulations throughout the 1900s. Farmers and Merchants Bank eventually became a part of the institution that today is known as Prosperity Bank.

Ethel was a businesswoman in her own right, operating a 400-acre cattle ranch near Tulsa called Magnolia Farms. She enjoyed a positive reputation as a cattlewoman throughout the state.  Ethel and Ed established close ties and lifelong friendships with a number of their professional associates and other contacts. Mrs. Hughes launched her soon-to-be thriving ranch with one Angus bull given to her by then-Senator Robert S. Kerr. Ethel passed away unexpectedly at the age of 66 in 1968.

Over the years, Ed was active in a number of banking endeavors, at times working as a consultant in the industry, and he enjoyed significant financial success. Ed passed away in 1983 at the age of 86. He generously left an estate gift to The University of Tulsa, which was divided between a capital fund and an endowed scholarship fund to benefit worthy student-athletes.