This article was originally posted in the July-August
2000 edition of the Appalachian Trailway News, which commemorated the 75th
Anniversary of the Appalachian Trail Conference. Reprinted here with
permission.
Living Memory
Six Conference Chairs in an Evolving Trail Landscape
Raymond F. Hunt
By Judy Jenner
The Appalachian Trail "is a living, changing thing" that requires
a "vigorous and flexible organization," Raymond F. Hunt, sixth ATC
chair, once wrote. The chemical engineer from Kingsport, Tennessee,
was vigorous and flexible himself and continued Blackburn's tradition as
peacemaker and consensus-builder throughout the six years he served as
chair, beginning in 1983. He also was the first of three chairs in a
row to be elected to the full three-term limit in that position.
A native of Pennsylvania, Hunt began a lifelong career at Tennessee Eastman
Company soon after graduating from Yale University. His introduction
to the Trail project began in the early 1950's, with the Tennessee Eastman
Hiking Club in one of its biggest undertakings. Members rerouted the
Trail over the Roan Mountain in a project Hunt thought "would be the
ruination of the club" because it was so extensive in scope (three
years and sixty-five miles). He began working closely with the Forest
Service partners in the South and wound up coordinating many of his club's
relocations.
During his first three decades as a Trail maintainer, Hunt hiked many
sections of the A.T. He began venturing farther from home with his
hikes, often joined by club colleagues, putting the pieces together until,
in 1988, he wound up at Thornton Gap, Virginia, where he officially
completed his 38-year, 2,100 mile odyssey. Joining him at the end were
his wife, Martha, and close friends. "You really can't do it [a
Trail hike] without a support system," he observed.
Hunt began volunteering for Board assignments in the mid-1970's. He
was a strong advocate of ATC's publications program and edited two editions
of the Tennessee-North Carolina guide. In 1977, he created the first Data
Book and continued revamping and perfecting the annual publication for
five more years.
He said his engineering background led to a fascination with numbers and
making sets of numbers into graphs he'd use to simplify an issue. In
1983, he quipped that, by the year 2228, the Trail would be four thousand
miles long due to relocations. On another occasion, pondering the
geographic center of the A.T., he suggested ATC build a portable cairn atop
a wagon and move it each year to the actual midpoint. The variability
of the Trail's center, he said, would persist "as long as maintainers
North and South keep trying to pull it closer to them by implementing longer
relocations."
It was just such humor Hunt often injected into tense situations.
Then, he'd laugh heartily and so infectiously that others simply had to join
him.
He once revealed his "secret" backpacking: When hiking uphill, he
let his companions do the talking and ask questions. He'd wait until
the downhill treks to answer them. Another time, he proposed a society
for people so attached to their old boots they couldn't discard them.
He wrote an ATN article about it and hosted a conference workshop to
discuss the matter - to which no one came.
In 1988, knowing of a powerful congressional chairman's penchant for golf,
Hunt tailored his testimony accordingly. He presented a large map
showing golf courses close to the A.T.
Hunt appeared many times before Congress, appealing for funding to complete
the federal acquisition of Trail lands. Of the first such occasion, in
1984, he wrote, "We appeared as volunteers and amateurs, rather than
skilled professionals, and that was probably helpful."
As chair, Hunt extensively organized Board committees and championed ATC's
first steps toward a more comprehensive fund-raising program. He
signed the historic 1984 document in which the Park Service turned over
management responsibility for the Trail to ATC and its clubs. The
hardest part about implementing the agreement, he wrote in 1985, was
"mobilizing the volunteer effort and resisting being drawn into the
complications of bureaucracy." He characterized it as "the
most important document that I ever hoped to sign." (Years later,
he admitted, "I had overlooked my marriage license.")
Hunt convened the first-ever weekend meeting of A.T. club presidents in 1985
and called it "an event waiting to happen." He created a
public-relations committee because he felt ATC had a "good story to
tell." Public knowledge "of our efforts builds a strong
constituency that yields political and financial support," he wrote in
1987.
In 1989, he addressed the need for a
resource-management policy to protect the Trail's flora and fauna and
other natural features. ATC, he said, needed to add a land ethic
"that goes beyond what is required by laws and regulations but is a
direct descendant of the values that inspired the Trail project in the
first place."
Hunt retired from his job at Tennessee
Eastman in 1987. Now 76, he remains an active committee member as
chair emeritus.
