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Did you ever see this, Gramma?

Here is something everyone should see that reflects the character of Duncan Hunter family.

this is Obituaries - 8/30/2006

R.O. Hunter (Father of Duncan Hunter)

Marine, Builder, Humanitarian

Robert O. Hunter, 90, who asked that the words “Semper Fidelis” be placed on his tombstone and who spent a lifetime of fidelity to his wife and family, his Christian faith and his nation, died Friday August 25th at La Jolla.

Hunter, born December 18, 1915, in Concordia, Kansas, and raised in Riverside, Calif., attended USC, graduating with a degree in journalism. After college, Hunter worked as assistant editor of the Western Livestock Journal and raised cattle in Southern California until WWII. Following Pearl Harbor, Hunter volunteered for the Marine Corps, serving as an artillery officer in the first landing to retake the Philippines at Leyte Island, October 20, 1944, with General MacArthur.

“The war made me,” Hunter often commented. “I met my lovely wife, Lola, during the war as well as many lifelong friends.” Hunter met Lola Lee Young while she was working in Washington, D.C., and he was attending Marine Officers School at nearby Quantico, Va. Prior to his shipping out to the South Pacific, they were married in Riverside, Calif.

Lola, who preceded Robert in death on September 23, 2004, was raised in Alpine, Texas. “When you told me you were a poor Texan I thought that meant you had only one oil well,” Hunter would kid his wife.

After being discharged from the Marine Corps as a major in 1945, Hunter returned to cattle raising and construction in Riverside, Calif.

He and Lola started a family in 1946 with the birth of their first child, Bob Jr. The next 13 years added Duncan, Bonnie, John and Jim. By the early 1950s Hunter had developed a thriving construction and land development business.

His patriotic senses, however, were troubled by the direction of the nation, which he felt was acquiescing to Communist aggression in Korea and China. Packing the Hunters up, R.O. moved the family to Washington, D.C. There, he walked into the headquarters of the Republican Party and announced, “I’m Bob Hunter and I’m going to give you a year of my life and we are going to turn America around.” The Party Director, Ab Herman, asked R.O. to return next week. Later, he confessed to Bob that he had “checked up on him.” “In Washington, nobody just walks in and volunteers to serve the country without pay and with no angle,” Mr. Herman told Bob.

Bob Hunter, however, did just that. Working with Mr. Herman and his friend, Congressman Pat Hillings of California, Hunter put together a television studio and hosted Republican members of Congress who wished to make weekly T.V. reports for their districts. Hunter’s patriotic ethic of serving America beyond the call of duty was displayed regularly for the ensuing 50 years, in which he served as a candidate for U.S. Congress, Republican Central Committee Chairman, Local Chairman for Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater and as a volunteer and contributor for dozens of campaigns. “When there was a Republican who needed help, Dad would load us into the station wagon and away we would go for precinct walking,” said daughter Bonnie.

Bob and Lola returned to California from Washington, D.C. in the mid ‘50s. Bob then developed the Jurupa Hills Country Club and Golf Course and the surrounding community in western Riverside, California. He loved the construction business, often striding onto a job site announcing, “Let’s get going men, this isn’t the WPA!” Bob refused to use foreign manufactured materials in his construction business. Even when he could save 50% in costs on foreign made steel products, he would buy American, announcing that, “He wanted American workers to have paychecks that would allow them to buy his houses.”

Bob was a journalist by education and for 15 years wrote a newspaper column. Writings ranged on subjects from the Navajo Code Talkers to Indian art to national politics. His columns reflected his Republican principles, his appreciation for those who fought for freedom, and the multitude of personalities and issues that constituted the American scene. One column might describe Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s struggles in Russia while the next would detail the results of the local rodeo competition or high school band event.

While building, writing and raising a family, Bob took time to run for Congress in Riverside in 1968. “We lost, but we learned how to run a campaign,” he commented. “This allowed us to get Duncan elected to Congress in 1980” (referring to his son, Duncan, now Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee).

In the early 1970s, the Hunters moved from Riverside to San Diego. Bob Jr., with a Ph.D. in physics, was working in the San Diego hi-tech industry and son Duncan was attending law school.

Throughout their life, Bob and Lola were involved in numerous humanitarian endeavors, including taking Polish refugees into their own home, delivering aid to orphanages in Tijuana and in 1989 being named Humanitarian of the Year by the International Medical Corps for providing medical aid to the citizens of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

In 1980 Bob and wife, Lola, took on a final political challenge. Their son, Duncan, was practicing law in the barrio. “Dad walked into my law office, which was half of a barbershop, and said, “You can win this Congressional seat,” said son Duncan. “And Dad and Mom did it, with help from the rest of the family and lots of volunteers.” Dad wrote the brochures, Mom designed the billboards and Dad chose our theme: “A Strong Defense Means San Diego Jobs.”

Today, daughter Bonnie practices law in San Diego; son Dr. John Hunter, a physicist, runs Water Station, Inc., a nonprofit organization that puts water in the California desert for people who might die of thirst; youngest son Jim Hunter, is Executive Vice President for the McMillin Companies; and oldest son Bob, is a laser physicist who owns Litel Corp.

“We learned to hunt and fish from our Dad and always had venison in the fall after our deer hunting trips. Some of the parental discipline and ethic worked because we didn’t suffer the same heartbreak of drugs and alcohol that threatens every family,” said son John.

Fidelity was a tenet of Bob’s life, never mentioned but always practiced. His fellow Marines, James Hamell and Bill Howlett, were both killed in Philippine landings in the Second War so Dad named his fourth son James Howlett Hunter.

In 1945, as a Marine returning from the South Pacific, Bob wrote his wife, Lola, “Please always love me and that will be all I really need in life.”

“My parents were the perfect example of true love, having been together until my mother’s death after 61 years of marriage,” said son Jim.

In 1985, Lola endured a series of strokes which left her an invalid for the next 19 years until her death in 2004. Bob set up a hospital room for Lola in their home at La Jolla and, with 24- hour nurse staffing, never left her side. Bob’s children all said he was their ultimate hero for the loyalty and dedication he showed Lola during those 19 years.

Robert Hunter, 90, is survived by his five children, Robert, Jr. of Del Mar, Duncan of Alpine, Bonnie Kane of La Mesa, John of Poway, and Jim of Alpine; as well as 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Robert O. Hunter will be memorialized at Skyline Church, 11330 Campo Rd., La Mesa, CA, (619) 660-5000, on Friday, September 8, 2006 at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to Water Station, Inc., 4705 Ruffin Road, San Diego, CA 92123.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/08/30/obituaries/8_29_0618_55_44.txt