Robert Hunter (author)
Encyclopedia
Robert Hunter was an American sociologist and progressive author.
the middle of five children born over thirteen years to William Robert and Caroline “Callie” (née Fouts) Hunter. 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. 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
veteran who served with General George Rogers Clark
at the Battle of Vincennes.
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, his10 year-old son was given the honor shaking the candidate’s hand after riding a white pony at the head of a parade greeting the Democratic nominee to their city.
. Around this time he became involved with the Settlement Movement
and for awhile was a resident of the city’s Hull House
before traveling to England where he would join similar 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-tuberculoses campaign and chaired a New York commission tasked with ending child labor.
, Robert Hunter married Caroline M. 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. The couple became parents to a daughter and two sons, Caroline, Robert and Phelps.
Caroline had four brothers who went on to have noted careers; Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, an architect and one time chairman of the New York Municipal Art Commission, James Graham Phelps Stokes
, publicist and political activist, Anson Phelps Stokes Jr.
, clergyman and educator who served as secretary for Yale University, and Harold Phelps Stokes, newspaper correspondent, and editorial writer at the New York Times and father-in-law of Nicholas Katzenbach
, President Lyndon B. Johnson
's Attorney General.
, Edith Abbott
, Sophonisba Breckinridge
, Florence Kelley
, Julia Lathrop
, Dr. Alice Hamilton
, Grace Abbott
and later in England, Scottish labor leader and socialist Keir Hardie
and Russian anarchist Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin
. In 1905 Hunter joined the Socialist Party of America
along with his wife , his brother-in-law, James Stokes, and his sister-in-law, Rose Pastor Stokes, 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 and had for its first president writer Jack London
and vice president Upton Sinclair
. Hunter ran for political office twice on the socialist ticket, first for a seat in the New York State Assembly and next as a candidate for United States Senator for the State of Connecticut, both campaigns ended in defeat. After the outbreak of the First World War a rift in the socialist movement led to Hunter’s resignation along with a number of other high profile members including London and Sinclair. Years later Hunter would support Republican Wendell Willkie
over President Franklin D. Roosevelt
during the 1940 presidential campaign.
. He teamed with famous golf course architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie to design and build many northern California golf courses including the Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco (now Green Hills Country Club
). He later moved to Pebble Beach where he authored what is thought to have been one of the first books on golf course architecture "The Links". He also was involved with Dr. MacKenzie during the design of Cypress Point
and improvements to Pebble Beach.
Robert Hunter died of a heart attack at his home in Montecito, California
on May 14, 1942. He was survived by his wife and 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.
Early life
Robert Hunter was born on April 10, 1874 at Terre Haute, IndianaTerre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
the middle of five children born over thirteen years to William Robert and Caroline “Callie” (née Fouts) Hunter. Hunter’s father was a native of Tennessee and a veteran of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, having served as a colonel with the Illinois 21st Infantry. 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
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
veteran who served with General George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark was a soldier from Virginia and the highest ranking American military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Kentucky militia throughout much of the war...
at the Battle of Vincennes.
During the 1884 presidential race New York Governor Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
made a campaign stop at Terre Haute where William Hunter had been put in charge of the local reception committee. As a result, his10 year-old son was given the honor 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 the University of Indiana in 1896 as soon thereafter became an organizing secretary for the Chicago Bureau of CharitiesMetropolitan Family Services
Metropolitan Family Services is a non-profit organization located within Chicago’s city and suburban communities responding to the needs of families for over 150 years. Through seven major community centers and public policy advocacy, Metropolitan serves low-income and working-poor families facing...
. Around this time he became involved with the Settlement Movement
Settlement movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement, beginning in the 1880s and peaking around the 1920s in England and the US, with a goal of getting the rich and poor in society to live more closely together in an interdependent community...
and for awhile was a resident of the city’s Hull House
Hull House
Hull House is a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of , Hull House opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912 the Hull...
before traveling to England where he would join similar socioeconomic communes. In 1902 he was named head worker (manager) of the University Settlement in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he also became active in an anti-tuberculoses 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, ConnecticutDarien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
, Robert Hunter married Caroline M. Phelps Stokes, the daughter of New York banker Anson Phelps Stokes
Anson Phelps Stokes
For other men with the same name, see Anson Phelps Stokes Anson Phelps Stokes was a merchant, banker, publicist, philanthropist, and became a multimillionaire. Born in New York City, he was the son of James Boulter and Caroline Stokes; brother of William Earl Dodge Stokes and Olivia Eggleston...
. 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 a daughter and two sons, Caroline, Robert and Phelps.
Caroline had four brothers who went on to have noted careers; Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, an architect and one time chairman of the New York Municipal Art Commission, James Graham Phelps Stokes
James Graham Phelps Stokes
James Graham Phelps Stokes , known to his friends as "Graham," was an American millionaire socialist writer, political activist, and philanthropist. He is best remembered as a founding member and key figure in the Intercollegiate Socialist Society and as the husband of Rose Pastor Stokes, a radical...
, publicist and political activist, Anson Phelps Stokes Jr.
Anson Phelps Stokes (philanthropist)
Anson Phelps Stokes , was an American educator, clergyman, author, philanthropist and civil rights activist.Stokes was one of three men of the same name; his father was multimillionaire banker Anson Phelps Stokes, and his son was the Bishop Anson Phelps Stokes, III, an Episcopal bishop.He was born...
, clergyman and educator who served as secretary for Yale University, and Harold Phelps Stokes, newspaper correspondent, and editorial writer at the New York Times and father-in-law of Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.-Early life:...
, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's Attorney General.
Politics
Hunter's politics was largely affected by the grinding poverty he witness during the deep economic depression that hit America the mid 1890s juxtaposed to the wealth and privilege of his own family. His time in Chicago had brought him in close contact with a number of social reformers like Mary McDowell, Ellen Gates StarrEllen Gates Starr
Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer and activist.-Biography:...
, Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott was an American economist, social worker, educator, and author. Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Her younger sister was Grace Abbott....
, Sophonisba Breckinridge
Sophonisba Breckinridge
Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge was an American activist, Progressive Era social reformer, social scientist and innovator in higher education.- Background :...
, Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...
, Julia Lathrop
Julia Lathrop
Julia Clifford Lathrop was an American social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare...
, Dr. Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton was the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University and was a leading expert in the field of occupational health...
, Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott was an American social worker who specifically worked in advancing child welfare. Her elder sister was social worker Edith Abbott....
and later in England, Scottish labor leader and socialist Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
and Russian anarchist Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
. In 1905 Hunter joined the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-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 which had split from the main organization...
along with his wife , his brother-in-law, James Stokes, and his sister-in-law, Rose Pastor Stokes, 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 and had for its first president writer Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
and vice president Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
. Hunter ran for political office twice on the socialist ticket, first for a seat in the New York State Assembly and next as a candidate for United States Senator for the State of Connecticut, both campaigns ended in defeat. After the outbreak of the First World War a rift in the socialist movement led to Hunter’s resignation along with a number of other high profile members including London and Sinclair. Years later Hunter would support Republican Wendell Willkie
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...
over President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
during the 1940 presidential campaign.
Later life and death
In 1918 Robert Hunter moved to the West Coast where he lectured politics and economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He was an avid amateur golfer and in 1922 won the Gold Vase Tournament at Pebble Beach Golf LinksPebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach Golf Links is a golf course located in Pebble Beach, California, on the west coast of the United States.Pebble Beach is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful courses in the world. It hugs the rugged coastline and has wide open views of Carmel Bay, opening to the Pacific Ocean,...
. He teamed with famous golf course architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie to design and build many northern California golf courses including the Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco (now Green Hills Country Club
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 minutes south of the city.Green Hills was originally known...
). He later moved to Pebble Beach where he authored what is thought to have been one of the first books on golf course architecture "The Links". He also was involved with Dr. MacKenzie during the design of Cypress Point
Cypress Point Club
Cypress Point Club is a private golf club in California. The club has a single eighteen hole course, one of eight on the Monterey peninsula near Monterey, California. The course is well known around the world for its series of three holes that play along the Pacific Ocean: the 15th, 16th and 17th,...
and improvements to Pebble Beach.
Robert Hunter died of a heart attack at his home in Montecito, California
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
on May 14, 1942. He was survived by his wife and 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
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. She died in San Francisco on July 6, 1964 at the age of eighty-six.
Selected works
- Socialist at Work (1908)
- Violence and the Labor Movement (1914)
- Labor in Politics (1915)
- Why We Fail as Christians (1919)
- The Links (1926)
- Inflation and Revolution (1934)
- Revolution: Why, How, When? (1940)