Harry Huge

Harry Arthur Huge, 82, of Charleston, S.C., husband of Reba Kinne Huge, died Monday, April 27, 2020. He was born Sept. 16, 1937, in Deshler, the son of the late Arthur Huge and Dorothy Vorderstrasse- Huge.

He received a bachelor of arts 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 Mr. Huge enjoyed a long and 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. Mr. Huge 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 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, and Estonia awarded him with the Medal of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana in 2006. He has 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 Sept. 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, and the trial resulted in conviction and maximum sentence for one 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, the 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 received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University (2005), and of the College of Charleston (2017).

Mr. Huge is survived by his wife, Reba Kinne Huge, and son, Theodore Huge, both in Charleston, S.C., and his brothers, Jim Huge, Reno, Nev., and Calvin Huge, Summerville, S.C.

The Trisagion Service was held at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity in Charleston, S.C.

A graveside service honoring the life of Harry Huge is scheduled for 10 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, in Evergreen Cemetery, Superior. The service will be live streamed around the world at https://www.youtube.com/embed/glrZNReFhCM.

Memorials may be made to The Huge Foundation through its website http://www.thehugefoundation.org.

Arrangements are by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc. Downtown Charleston Chapel and local arrangements by Megrue-Price Funeral Home of Superior.