Robert Hunter (''né'' Wiles Robert Hunter; April 10, 1874 – May 14, 1942) was an American sociologist, progressive author, and
golf course architect
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
.
Early life and family
Wiles Robert Hunter was born on April 10, 1874, at
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
["ROBERT HUNTER, 68, SOCIOLOGIST, DIES; Headed Group for Abolition of Child Labor Here Author of Social Economy Works"](_blank)
obituary in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' May 17, 1942 the middle of five children born over thirteen years
[1880 US Census Records] to William Robert and Caroline "Callie" (''née'' Fouts) Hunter.
Hunter's father was a native of
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and a veteran of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, having served as a colonel with the
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
21st Infantry.
[Indiana Historical Society] At war's end William Hunter relocated to Terre Haute where he married 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
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
veteran who had served with
General George Rogers Clark at the
Battle of Vincennes
The siege of Fort Vincennes, also known as the siege of Fort Sackville and the Battle of Vincennes, was a Revolutionary War frontier battle fought in present-day Vincennes, Indiana won by a militia led by American commander George Rogers Clark o ...
.
During the 1884 presidential race
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
Governor
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
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.
Early career
Robert Hunter graduated from
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
in 1896, and soon thereafter became an organizing secretary for the
Chicago Bureau of Charities. Around this time he became involved with the
Settlement Movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
. For a while, he was a resident of the city's
Hull House
Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...
, before traveling to England, where he would join similar
socioeconomic
Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...
communes. In 1902 he was named head worker (manager) of the University Settlement in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he also became active in an anti-
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
campaign and chaired a New York commission tasked with ending child labor.
Marriage and family
On May 23, 1903, at the St. Luke's Episcopal Church in
Darien, Connecticut
Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles, it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast. It has the youngest population of any n ...
, Robert Hunter married Caroline M. Phelps Stokes, the daughter of New York banker
Anson Phelps Stokes
Anson Phelps Stokes (February 22, 1838 – June 28, 1913) was a wealthy American merchant, property developer, banker, genealogist and philanthropist. Born in New York City, he was the son of James Boulter and Caroline Stokes. His paternal gran ...
. He may have met her the year before when they both served on the New York Commission investigating child labor. The couple became parents to two sons and two daughters, Robert, Phelps, Caroline and Helen.
[''New York Times'' July 8, 1964]
Caroline had four brothers who went on to have noted careers:
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (April 11, 1867 – December 18, 1944) was an American architect. Stokes was a pioneer in social housing who co-authored the 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he worked on ''The Iconography of Manhatt ...
, an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and onetime chairman of the New York Municipal Art Commission;
James Graham Phelps Stokes
James Graham Phelps Stokes, known as Graham Stokes (March 18, 1872 – April 8, 1960) was an American socialist, railroad president, political activist, and philanthropist. He was president of the Nevada Central Railroad for forty years.
He is be ...
, publicist and political activist;
Anson Phelps Stokes Jr., clergyman and educator who served as secretary for
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
; and Harold Phelps Stokes, newspaper correspondent, editorial writer at the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and father-in-law of
Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach (January 17, 1922 – May 8, 2012) was an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He previously served as United States Deputy Attorney General u ...
, President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
's Attorney General.
Caroline herself became a noted conservationist.
Politics
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.
His time in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
had brought him in close contact with a number of social reformers such as
Jane Addams
Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...
, Mary McDowell,
Ellen Gates Starr
Ellen Gates Starr (March 19, 1859 – February 10, 1940) was an American social reformer and activist. With Jane Addams, she founded Chicago's Hull House, an adult education center, in 1889; the settlement house expanded to 13 buildings in ...
,
Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott (September 26, 1876 – July 28, 1957) was an American economist, statistician, social worker, educator, and author. Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Abbott was a pioneer in the profession of social work with an educationa ...
,
Sophonisba Breckinridge
Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (April 1, 1866 – July 30, 1948) was an American activist, Progressive Era social reformer, social scientist and innovator in higher education. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science and ...
,
Florence Kelley
Florence Moltrop Kelley (September 12, 1859 – February 17, 1932) was a social and political reformer and the pioneer of the term wage abolitionism. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rig ...
,
Julia Lathrop
Julia Clifford Lathrop (June 29, 1858 – April 15, 1932) was an American social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare. As director of the United States Children's Bureau from 1912 to 1922, she was the first wom ...
,
Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869Corn, JHamilton, Alice''American National Biography'' – September 22, 1970) was an American physician, research scientist, and author. She was a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer ...
,
Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott (November 17, 1878 – June 19, 1939) was an American social worker who specifically worked in improving the rights of immigrants and advancing child welfare, especially the regulation of child labor. Her elder sister, Edith Abbott ...
and later in England, Scottish labor leader and socialist
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908.
Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...
and Russian anarchist
Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin. In 1905 Hunter joined the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
along with his wife, his brother-in-law, James Stokes, and his sister-in-law,
Rose Pastor Stokes
Rose Harriet Pastor Stokes (née Wieslander; July 18, 1879 – June 20, 1933) was an American socialist activist, writer, birth control advocate, and feminist. She was a figure of some public notoriety after her 1905 marriage to Episcopalian mill ...
, On September 12 of that year he was named to the executive committee of the newly established Intercollegiate Socialist Society in New York. The goal of the organization was to promote discussion of socialist ideals in colleges and universities; it had for its first president writer
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
and vice president
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...
. Hunter ran for political office twice on the socialist ticket, first for a seat in the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
, and next as a candidate for United States Senator for the State of
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
; both campaigns ended in defeat. After the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
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.
Years later, Hunter would support Republican
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
over President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
during the 1940 presidential campaign.
Golf course design work, writing
He was an avid amateur golfer, and in 1922 won the Gold Vase Tournament at
Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach Golf Links is a public golf course on the west coast of the United States, located in Pebble Beach, California.
Regarded by ''Travel and Leisure'' blog as one of the most beautiful courses in the world, it hugs the rugged coastlin ...
. Although there was little evidence of a formal partnership, Hunter teamed with famous golf course architect
Alister MacKenzie
Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War ...
to design and build several northern California golf courses, including the
Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco (now
Green Hills Country Club
Green Hills Country Club, located in Millbrae, California, is often referred to as the San Francisco Peninsula’s “hidden gem”. Green Hills is a private members-only country club located on the San Francisco peninsula approximately 20 mi ...
). He later moved to
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also notable as a resort destination, and the home of the golf course ...
, 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
Cypress Point Club is a private golf club located in Pebble Beach, California, at the northern end of the Central Coast. Its single 18-hole course has been named as one of the finest in golf, best known for a series of dramatic holes along th ...
(1928), and improvements to the Pebble Beach course that same year, in advance of the
United States Amateur Championship (golf)
The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...
, which was held there the following year.
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.
Professor, later life, death
He moved to the West Coast in 1918, and lectured in politics and
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
at the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
. Robert Hunter died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
at his home in
Montecito, California
Montecito (Spanish for "Little mountain") is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California.McCormack, Don (1999). ''McCormack's Guides Santa Barbara and Ventura 2000''. Mccormacks Guides. p. 58. . Located ...
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
Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') and giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') trees through the preemptive purchase of development rights ...
and had worked to preserve the park areas at
Point Lobos
Point Lobos and the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is a state park in California. Adjoining Point Lobos is "one of the richest marine habitats in California." The ocean habitat is protected by two marine protected areas, the Point Lobos Sta ...
in
Monterey, California
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...
. She died in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
on July 6, 1964, at the age of eighty-six.
Selected works
* ''Socialist at Work'' (1908)
''Poverty''The Macmillan Company, (1912)
''Violence and the Labor Movement''The Macmillan Company (1914)
''Labor in Politics''The Socialist party (1915)
''Why We Fail as Christians''The Macmillan Company (1919)
* ''The Links'' (1926) (reprinted by the Classics of Golf Library)
* ''Inflation and Revolution'' (1934)
* ''Revolution: Why, How, When?'' (1940)
Sources
External links
*
*
NYPL Digital Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Robert
American male writers
American socialists
Writers from Terre Haute, Indiana
Indiana University alumni
University of California faculty
American male golfers
Golf course architects
1874 births
1942 deaths
People from Pebble Beach, California