WOODSTOCK, VT — John (Jack) Walter Hunter, born on January 15, 1934 at Miners Hospital in Spangler, Pennsylvania, died on December 9, 2019, in Woodstock, Vermont.
Jack, named after his grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, was the son of loving parents Walter and Maude Hunter. Jack was raised in a Methodist household in Hastings, Pennsylvania, coal country, with his younger sister, Janet.
Jack graduated from Lycoming College, where he majored in psychology and met his future wife, Ruth, who he married on June 1, 1956. Immediately following college, Jack studied in Denmark, an experience that would inform his life for years to come. He attended graduate school at Boston University, where he received a Masters of Divinity (ordained as a United Methodist minister) and doctorate in sociology and social ethics. Following graduate school, he and his growing family moved to North Carolina, where he taught sociology at Greensboro College.
During summers, Jack and Ruth worked at several camps. In 1968, Jack became the first Executive Director of the newly formed Farm and Wilderness Foundation. In 1977, Jack and Ruth began working in Friends schools, where he taught and worked as an administrator until they retired to their house in Woodstock, Vermont. Jack and Ruth found their spiritual home among Quakers.
In retirement, Jack was active in local politics, served as the Farm and Wilderness Foundation archivist, served on the Boards at Kendal at Hanover, The Meeting School, and Woodstock Union High School Endowment Fund. Jack volunteered at the Woodstock Historical Society, tutored in the local school, taught in the adult education program at Dartmouth, and was an enthusiastic participant in Freelance Singers.
Jack is survived by his wife, Ruth Laura Glazier Hunter, sister Janet Lee Bender (Richard), in-laws Mary Lu and Charles Mathis and Bruce and Louise Glazier, five nieces and three nephews, his children John David Hunter and his wife JoAnn Coates-Hunter, Emily Lucille Hunter and her husband, Matthew Patterson, Edward Allen Hunter and Amy Elizabeth Hunter as well as his grandchildren Sadie Jane Hunter, Samuel Hartt Hunter, Hannah Ruth Hunter Patterson, Iris Montgomery Hunter Patterson, Jordan Tamura Rose and Margaret Isabel Hunter. This kind,wise, optimistic, humble soul will be missed by his family and so many more.
A memorial service will be held for Jack at Hanover Friends Meeting on March 14, 2020 at 2pm in Hanover, New Hampshire.
A memorial service will also be held at Forest Echo Farm in Mount Holly, Vermont on August 16, 2020, at 10:30am where he will be remembered at the farm memorial site.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, please feel free to send donations to the campership fund at Farm and Wilderness Camps in memory of Jack, Farm & Wilderness Foundation/Campership Fund, 401 Farm and Wilderness Road, Plymouth, VT 05056.
An on line guest book can be found at cabotfh.com