Afterwards, he served during World War II from February 1942 to November 1945, as an officer on the USS Phoenix (CL-46) in the Southwest Pacific and Atlantic.

While in Congress, he was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was an advocate of recognition of China and support for the Marshall Plan.

Notably, he did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto despite school segregation being legally required in North Carolina prior to Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

[4] Chatham was a trustee of the University of North Carolina and of Woodberry Forest School; president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce; and a member of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The couple had two sons, Hugh Gwyn II and Richard Thurmond, Jr. After Lucy died, Chatham married Patricia Firestone Coyner in 1950.

[6] Biography uses material from: Biographical Note, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [1]