PORT ANGELES — Some call Jack Hughes a ranger’s ranger.

After 48 years of working as one, the title can’t be far off the mark.

On Saturday, the 72-year-old Olympic National Park ranger was honored for his 50 years of federal service — 48 in the National Park Service — and commended for his deep love and commitment to the park and the people in it.

“Jack’s truly a legend,” Olympic Chief Ranger Tim Simonds said.

About 75 people, including many retired rangers and Hughes’ current and former co-workers, gathered in the Elks Naval Lodge ballroom as park Superintendent Bill Laitner presented Hughes with the U.S. Department of the Interior “Honor Award” for superior service.

Hughes also received a watch engraved with “Jack Hughes, 50 years, a ranger’s ranger,” and a standing ovation.

“What am I supposed to say?” Hughes asked, as someone shouted for him to tell stories.

The weathered and white-haired ranger has plenty of those from his 39 years skiing and hiking thousands of miles in Olympic, patrolling the backcountry, and working on hundreds of search and rescue missions.

Helicopter crash recalled

When asked what experiences stand out from his career so far, Hughes recalls one such search mission nearly 30 years ago that temporarily put him out of commission.

“When I crashed in a helicopter, that wasn’t a highlight, that was a lowlight,” said Hughes, referring to the 1976 crash in Cat Creek basin that crushed four of his vertebrae.

Six months later, with bone grafts and steel rods stabilizing his back, Hughes was back on his cross-country skis for Hurricane Ridge patrols.

Most people would have retired after that, said former Clallam County Sheriff Steve Kernes, who worked in the park from about 1974 to 1979 and remembered seeing Hughes in a body cast.