Obituary
Hugh Cullman

Hugh Cullman, a former naval officer and Vice Chairman and Director of Philip Morris Companies, now the Altria Group, died at his home in Pittsboro, North Carolina on November 4. He was 100 years old.

Born in New York City on January 27, 1923, into a family of prominent tobacco merchants, he attended the Little Red School House, the city’s first progressive school, which he did not enjoy and later Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, which he did. An avid skier with an analytical bent, he chose Kimball Union by plotting schools on to a snow fall map of New England, shunning the ones preferred by his family for the one with the most snow. Following America’s entry into World War II, he set his sights on serving his country and entered the United States Naval Academy in 1942. Having suffered a serious eye injury playing lacrosse, he made it through the Naval Academy by memorizing all the charts used for the eye exams. Graduating in 1945, he went on to serve in the Pacific theater aboard the Destroyer USS Metcalf.

Between WWII and Korea, he both joined the family cigarette business, Benson & Hedges, and married Nan Alva Ogburn of Smithfield, North Carolina who he met while in town buying tobacco. During the Korean War, he was recalled to active service and served on the staff of US Naval Forces in Germany as aide to Admiral Holden.

After the war, he returned to Benson & Hedges which was acquired by Philip Morris in 1954, at which time he was appointed Director of Market Research. For the next 34 years, he held positions in virtually every aspect of the business, including leaf manufacturing, finance, and brand management and was largely responsible for building the Philip Morris international business which he led from 1967-1978. At one of the events celebrating his retirement in 1988, a colleague described him as “the hardest worker … passionate about quality … the vigilant guardian of Philip Morris standards.” Also known for his dogged conscientiousness, a running corporate joke was made at another retirement event - “Either you clean up this mess or we’ll put Hugh Cullman on it.”

In addition to his love of the sea and the tobacco business, he supported many non-profit and charitable institutions including the United Negro College Fund where he served as Chairman from 1987 to 1989. He also served as a trustee of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki, Greece and on committees of both the United States Council for International Business and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

An active supporter of both his alma maters, he established the Cullman Scholarship Program at Kimball Union that for the last 40 years has provided hundreds of students with off-campus opportunities to explore global and environmental issues. At the Naval Academy, though hardly a digital native, he became a major supporter of the Academy’s Center for Cyber Security Studies.


In 1991, after a long campaign waged by his southern wife, he retired to the seaside town of Beaufort, North Carolina where he kept a small armada off the dock in his front yard and became a dedicated supporter of organizations such as the North Carolina Symphony, the NC Coastal Federation and the Beaufort Maritime Museum. He also finally had time to join his wife, Nan, on her worldwide adventures, spending much of the year hunting for fossils in Niger, observing penguins in Antarctica and hiking in the Alps. In the early 2000s, he moved to the retirement community of Galloway Ridge in Pittsboro, North Carolina where he was an active member in community affairs well into his 90s.

Hugh Cullman is survived by his three children, Katherine Hedges, Hugh Cullman Jr and Alexandra Haslingden, as well as 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren as well as his brother, Brian Cullman and sister, Marguerite Cullman. His wife pre-deceased him.

A service of remembrance will be held on January 10, 2024 at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Beaufort, NC. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: US Naval Academy Center for Securities Studies, Kimball Union Academy Cullman Scholars Program or the Kidney Center of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC.