Harry Arthur Huge

Harry Arthur Huge, 82, of Charleston, South Carolina, husband of Reba Kinne Huge died Monday, April 27, 2020. With the current global virus pandemic and its attendant social restrictions, his funeral will be scheduled at a time in the future when pandemic conditions will allow safe and comfortable assembly. His body will be buried near his parents in Superior’s Evergreen Cemetery.

Harry Huge was born Sept. 16, 1937, in Deshler, the son of the late Arthur Huge and Dorothy Vorderstrasse Huge.

He received a bachelor of arts degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1959. Following graduation, he served as a 1st lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve. Two years later, he went to law school at Georgetown University and graduated with honors in 1963.

Thereafter he had a long, successful career as an attorney at prestigious law firms in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Over the years, he tried cases in courts throughout the United States involving both criminal and civil matters. He was listed in several editions of Who’s Who in America and the World and in the Best 1,000 Lawyers in America.

Mr. Huge was actively involved in several other endeavors during his legal career, including the civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, integration of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., service as president of the Voter Education Project in Atlanta and as a member of the investigative committee into hunger and poverty in the United States, and service as a member of the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Strategic Weapons from 1977 to 1981 advising the President of the United States directly on the SALT II treaty and the ability to verify the Soviet missile arsenal. Mr. Huge handled international arbitrations against the government of Argentina and served as a special master for a case involving a U.S. Air Force plane crash in Vietnam carrying Vietnamese orphans to the United States at the end of the Vietnam war.

In the late 1980s, Mr. Huge devoted his energy to the independence of Estonia, then-occupied by the Soviet Union. On the eve of Estonia’s restoration of independence, he represented Estonia’s interests in Washington. Estonia awarded him with the Medal of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana in 2006. He had served as Estonia’s honorary consul for South Carolina since 2010.

He and his wife moved to Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1990s, became actively involved in the community and supported several institutions including the Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC, where Mr. Huge served as its first chairman of the board for eight years, the Spoleto Festival and the South Carolina Aquarium.

In 2001, Mr. Huge joined with other attorneys to represent 3,500 family members of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In late 2002, Mr. Huge tried members of the terrorist cell in Hamburg, Germany along with the chief German federal prosecutor. The trial resulted in conviction and maximum sentencing for one of the primary terrorists involved in the 9/11 murders.

In 2005, Mr. Huge and his wife established The Huge Foundation, which has provided merit scholarships to students at Honors College at The College of Charleston, The Citadel, Mr. Huge’s alma mater Nebraska Wesleyan and two prominent universities in Estonia - University of Tartu and Tallinn Technical University. Mr. Huge also worked diligently to foster educational, cultural and economic exchange among the universities as well as between the governments of South Carolina and Estonia. In addition, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2005 and of the College of Charleston in 2017.

He oversaw the restoration of the family home in Superior. Through the two foundations he created supported community projects in Superior and provided scholarships for area high school students.

Mr. Huge is survived by his wife, Reba Kinne Huge, and son, Theodore Huge, both of Charleston, South Carolina, and his brothers, Jim Huge, Reno, Nevada, and Calvin Huge, Summerville, South Carolina.

A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting http://www.jhenrystuhr.com.