Mary Wyman Hunt: Education Advocate, Political Activist & Ardent Cardinals Fan

Mary Wyman Hunt died peacefully at the Village Care Center of Friendship Village Chesterfield in Missouri on September 5 at the age of 92.

Mrs. Hunt, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Allan Wyman, was born and raised in St. Louis and was a 1941 graduate of Mary Institute (now MICDS), where she was Senior Class President. She attended Smith College in Northampton, MA, but returned home after two years because of World War II.

In 1945, she married Charles Lucas Hunt, Jr., and they settled in St. Louis to begin their life together. The young couple relocated when Charlie’s job with Monsanto Chemical Company transferred him to the New York metropolitan area. They lived briefly in New Canaan, CT and then settled in Bronxville, NY, where they raised their seven children.

Mrs. Hunt was an active citizen in her Bronxville community. She worked as an inspector for local elections and a clerk in the office of Judge Buell of the Westchester County Family Court. She was president of the Women’s Republican Club, an active member of the Bronxville Junior League, and she worked as a licensed real estate broker. In her leisure time, she could be found on the tennis court, in the swimming pool, or on the ballroom dance floor. Always ready to try new experiences, she celebrated her 68^th birthday by going skydiving.

Her belief in the importance of family and the value of education is apparent in her choice of volunteer activities. She was a troop leader in Girl Scouts and a den mother in Boy Scouts when her children were in scouting. She was active in the PTA and a member of the Bronxville School Board, serving a term as its clerk and a term as its vice-president. Not only was she on the board of the Westchester Smith College Club, she also was instrumental in organizing the annual Smith Pecan sales in Westchester, a major fundraiser for academic scholarships for the local Smith Club. Her daughter Margaret can’t remember a time when there weren’t cases of pecans in the garage, and all of her children remember making the annual holiday gifts of pralines with Smith Pecans.

Her support of education lives on in the legacy of her children and her grandchildren whose educations include bachelor degrees from Smith College, Cornell University, Washington University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Franklin and Marshall College, Michigan State University and University of Michigan; masters degrees from New York University, Teachers College of Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of New Haven, and Washington University; doctoral degrees from University of California at Davis and University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School; and an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

Mrs. Hunt’s belief in the transforming power of education and the importance of being an active citizen can be traced back to her St. Louis ancestors. Her great-grandfather Edward Wyman opened a boarding school for boys in 1879 in what was then Upper Alton, Illinois. A graduate of Amherst College, Wyman believed the West needed a “boarding school for the proper education of young men.” Her grandfather, Frank Wyman, the 22nd Postmaster of St. Louis and manager of Simmons Hardware Company, founded the St. Louis Children’s Industrial Farm in Eureka in 1898 to give children from St. Louis tenement neighborhoods a chance to experience life in a rural setting. It was later was named Camp Wyman after him in honor of his single-handed effort to keep the organization going through his fundraising. One of the oldest camps in the United States, it is now part of the Wyman Center.

Mrs. Hunt and her husband moved back to the St. Louis area after his retirement. Upon his death in 1987, she moved to Lake of the Ozarks for ten years before returning to St. Louis and moving into the retirement community of Friendship Village Chesterfield. During her years there, she enjoyed reading, listening to big band music, visiting with her children and grandchildren, and cheering on her beloved St. Louis Cardinals.

She was pre-deceased by her husband and her three siblings: Thomas Hunt Wyman, Susan Elizabeth “Betty” Wyman Caspari, and Sarah “Sally” Hunt Wyman Slack. She is survived by her seven children: Nancy Wyman Hunt of Charlottesville, VA, Charles Lucas Hunt of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Margaret Stanford Hunt of Litchfield, CT, Catherine Turner Hunt, Ph.D., of Ambler, PA, Elizabeth Booth Hunt of Kirkland, WA, William Booth Hunt of Dubai, UAE, and Mary Mather Hunt of Chesterfield, MO. In addition, she is survived by seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be Friday, October 16, 2015 at 10 am at Friendship Village of Chesterfield, 15201 Olive Boulevard, Chesterfield, MO and will be followed immediately by a reception, entombment will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to MICDS Alumni and Development Office, 101 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63124 or St. Luke’s Hospice, Office of Development, 232 S. Woods Mill Rd., Chesterfield, MO 63017.