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Richard W. Hughes was raised in Boulder, Colorado. After graduating from high school, he decided to put off university in favour of travelling. After travelling in Europe, Africa, India and Nepal, he settled in Bangkok for several years. He took some courses at the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences, and went on to become its manager as well as a gem trader. He married and had a child, and published his first book, Corundum (1990). He also began the periodical the Gemological Digest.

Finding the polluted city of Bangkok unsuitable for raising children, Hughes and his wife moved to Boulder, Colorado. Hughes wrote his second book, Ruby & Sapphire (1991). He returned to Bangkok in 1996 and worked on the second edition of Ruby & Sapphire. In 1997, he moved to Los Angeles to work for the Gem Quality Institute. In 1999, he took a job in Fallbrook, California. In 2004, he moved to New York City to work for the AGTA Gemological Testing Center. In 2008 he returned to Bangkok to work for GemsTV. Later, he went to work for a sapphire mining company in Laos and Australia, where he still works.

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