Robert Hunter (author)

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Robert Hunter
BornWiles Robert Hunter
(1874-04-10)April 10, 1874
Terre Haute, Indiana, United States
DiedMay 14, 1942(1942-05-14) (aged 68)
Montecito, California, United States
OccupationSociologist, progressive author, golf course architect
EducationIndiana University
SpouseCaroline M. Phelps Stokes
Signature

Robert Hunter (né Wiles Robert Hunter; April 10, 1874 – May 14, 1942) was an American sociologist, progressive author, and

golf course architect
.

Early life and family

Wiles[1] Robert Hunter was born on April 10, 1874, at Terre Haute, Indiana[2][3] the middle of five children born over thirteen years[4] to William Robert and Caroline "Callie" (née Fouts) Hunter.[2][4] Hunter's father was a native of Tennessee and a veteran of the American Civil War, having served as a colonel with the Illinois 21st Infantry.[5] At war's end William Hunter relocated to Terre Haute where he married[6] and became a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages and buggies in partnership with his father-in-law, Andrew B. Fouts. Robert Hunter's maternal second great-grandfather was Samuel Hawkins, an American Revolutionary War veteran who had served with General George Rogers Clark at the Battle of Vincennes.[7]

During the 1884 presidential race

New York Governor Grover Cleveland made a campaign stop at Terre Haute, where William Hunter had been put in charge of the local reception committee. As a result, his ten-year-old son was given the honor of shaking the candidate's hand after riding a white pony at the head of a parade greeting the Democratic nominee to their city.[5]

Early career

Robert Hunter graduated from

socioeconomic communes. In 1902 he was named head worker (manager) of the University Settlement in New York City, where he also became active in an anti-tuberculosis campaign and chaired a New York commission tasked with ending child labor.[2]

Marriage and family

On May 23, 1903, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Darien, Connecticut, Robert Hunter married Caroline Margharetta Phelps Stokes, the daughter of New York banker Anson Phelps Stokes. He may have met her the year before when they both served on the New York Commission investigating child labor.[8] The couple became parents to two sons and two daughters, Robert, Phelps, Caroline and Helen.[9]

Caroline had four brothers who went on to have noted careers:

New York Times and father-in-law of Nicholas Katzenbach, President Lyndon B. Johnson's Attorney General.[2][9] Caroline herself became a noted conservationist.[10]

Politics

Sergeant Kendall

Hunter's politics were largely affected by the grinding poverty he witnessed during the deep economic depression that hit America in the mid-1890s, juxtaposed to the wealth and privilege of his own family.

First World War a rift in the socialist movement led to Hunter's resignation, along with those of a number of other high-profile members, including London and Sinclair.[2][13] Years later, Hunter would support Republican Wendell Willkie over President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1940 presidential campaign.[2]

Golf course design work, writing

He was an avid amateur golfer, and in 1922 won the Gold Vase Tournament at

Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco (now Green Hills Country Club). He later moved to Pebble Beach, California, where in 1926 he authored what was one of the first comprehensive books on golf course architecture: "The Links". He also was involved with MacKenzie during the design of Cypress Point (1928), and improvements to the Pebble Beach course that same year, in advance of the United States Amateur Championship (golf), which was held there the following year.[2][15] Hunter also had a part in the (re)design of other California courses, including the Valley Club of Montecito, Meadow Club, Mira Vista Golf and Country Club, Northwood Golf Club, and Pittsburgh Golf Club. Hunter proved prophetic when he forecasted the eventual massive increase in golf's popularity, as recreation for all classes and ages of people; this came to fruition in gradual steps following World War II.[16]

Professor, later life, death

He moved to the West Coast in 1918, and lectured in politics and

heart attack at his home in Montecito, California on May 14, 1942. He was survived by his wife and three of their children. Caroline Hunter was an active member of the Save the Redwoods League and had worked to preserve the park areas at Point Lobos in Monterey, California. She died in San Francisco on July 6, 1964, at the age of eighty-six.[2][9]

Selected works

Sources

  1. ISBN 0-8317-3947-9
    , p. 188
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "ROBERT HUNTER, 68, SOCIOLOGIST, DIES; Headed Group for Abolition of Child Labor Here Author of Social Economy Works" obituary in The New York Times May 17, 1942
  3. ^ U.S. Passport Application -18 May 1906
  4. ^ a b 1880 US Census Records
  5. ^ a b c Indiana Historical Society
  6. ^ Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800–1941
  7. ^ Greater Terre Haute and Vigo County: Closing the First Century's Charles Cochran Oakey – 1908
  8. ^ The New York Times May 24, 1903
  9. ^ a b c New York Times July 8, 1964
  10. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  11. ^ spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
  12. ^ "The American labor year book: Volume 1 - Page 156, Rand School of Social Science, Dept. of Labor Research – 1916
  13. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American biography Volume 31 1967 James Terry White
  14. ^ The Golf Course, by Cornish and Whitten, p. 188
  15. ^ pebblebeach.com
  16. ^ "Classics of Golf – the World's Best Reading Golf Books".

External links

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