My cousin and good friend Jim Hunt passed on last Friday. I will miss him. He was a good man and a man well worth knowing. He was known affectionately to many of his east coast relatives as “Hunty”, a name given to him many years ago by his uncle, Bill Simpson.
Although separated by several thousand miles, I always felt a strong kinship with Jim. It started when we were kids. His mother would come east every year or so to visit her family and bring Jim and Bill to get to know their east coast relatives. Jim sort of attached himself to me, his “older” cousin. I was flattered.
In many ways Jim was the quintessential California boy, with a free and easy air and ready smile. But this was offset slightly by his sardonic and occasionally sarcastic Simpson wit. An interesting combination, I always thought, of the east and west coast attitudes.
We shared a love of flying. Our last conversation a few weeks ago focused primarily on the comparative stall speeds in the landing configuration of the Great Lakes bi-plane versus the Cirrus SR20. He was considering buying a Great Lakes.
In recent years, whenever he’d come east, we’d go flying. I clearly recall a flight to Reading, Pa with his daughter Alex to visit a flight museum. It was a beautiful clear day. Hunty took the controls and handled the plane like an old pro. At the museum, he proved to know more about the aircraft than the curator.
Jim was a lucky man in many ways. His wife Wendy loved him deeply and together, they raised three amazing young women. We’ll all be interested in how they make their mark.
For now, our hearts are with you and we wish you all well.
