Colonel (retired) Richard Lee Hunt of Oklahoma City died on Friday, 23 April 2004, after an extended battle with metastatic kidney cancer. He was 76. He was predeceased by his father and mother, Adam Love and Mellie Lyon Hunt, his step-mother, Minnie Bussell Hunt and his brothers James Birch Hunt and Adam Love Hunt, Jr.

Born in Walters, OK, Dick graduated from Oklahoma Military Academy in 1946, the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1950 and completed a masters degree in civil engineering at the University of Illinois in 1955. Upon his graduation from West Point, Dick married Marilyn (nee Rutter) and promptly departed for Korea as a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Dick served the country he loved for a total of 32 years, including hardship tours in Korea and Thailand, a four year mission in Europe and multiple assignments in the Pentagon and Washington, D.C.. In 1973, as the Corps’ District Engineer for the Lower Mississippi River Valley, Dick earned a special measure of gratitude and respect from local residents and officials as he marshaled the resources and strategies to fight record-setting floods in lower Louisiana. Dick’s military career culminated with his appointment as Lieutenant Governor of the Panama Canal Zone and Vice President of the Panama Canal Company. In 1978, after four years in Panama, Dick retired from the Army and returned to Oklahoma City with Marilyn, where he worked as a vice president with Hutchinson, Thompson and Ball Architectural & Engineering Co. for three years. In the ensuing years of full “retirement”, Dick made it his personal responsibility to provide for the care of the elderly of his and Marilyn’s families. As a member and officer of New Covenant Christian Church on Rockwell Blvd., Dick served as Church Treasurer and worked as a volunteer consultant for a major building program at the church. More recently, Dick helped launch a sausage biscuit sales program, which in turn funded several “Mobile Meals” routes in the city. He also served for several years as a member of the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma Christian Retirement Community, in Edmond.

Dick is survived by his beloved wife, Marilyn, his daughter Sherry Cox and husband Bill, his daughter Sue Perry and husband Bill, and his son Steve and wife Elizabeth, as well as seven grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, 28 April at 1 p.m. at New Covenant Christian Church, 12000 N. Rockwell Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73162, the Reverend Tim Pool officiating. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts be sent to New Covenant Christian Church or to the Oklahoma Christian Retirement Community, 906 N. Boulevard Street, Edmond, OK 73034. 

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