Harry R. Hughes

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Former Maryland Gov. Harry R. Hughes, who prided himself on restoring public faith in the political process, died Wednesday. He was 92.

His daughter, Elizabeth Hughes, said Hughes had been in hospice.

“I was holding his hand,” she said. ‘He was a wonderful dad. He was a kind generous man, and he had a great sense of humor.’

The two-term Democratic governor, who served from 1979 to 1987, also spent 16 years in the General Assembly and seven as Maryland’s first transportation secretary.

Hughes came to the governor’s mansion at a time when Maryland had become a national symbol for corruption. Gov. Marvin Mandel had been sentenced to jail on political corruption charges and former Gov. Spiro T. Agnew, who left office to become vice president under President Richard Nixon, had pleaded no contest to income tax evasion.