Robert Hunter (''né'' Wiles Robert Hunter; April 10, 1874 – May 14, 1942) was an American sociologist, progressive author, and
golf course architect.
Early life and family
Wiles Robert Hunter was born on April 10, 1874, at
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...
["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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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 and a veteran of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, having served as a colonel with the Illinois 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 the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
veteran who had served with
General George Rogers Clark at the
Battle of Vincennes.
During the 1884 presidential race New York Governor
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
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 Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...
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 the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity an ...
. For a while, he was a resident of the city's
Hull House
Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hul ...
, before traveling to England, where he would join similar
socioeconomic
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
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-
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
campaign and chaired a New York commission tasked with ending child labor.
Marriage and family
On May 23, 1903, at 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 , it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast.
Situated on the Long Island ...
, Robert Hunter married Caroline Margharetta 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 Stokes and wife Caroline (nee Phelps). ...
. 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 New York State Tenement House Act, 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he work ...
, an architect and onetime 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
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
; and Harold Phelps Stokes, newspaper correspondent, editorial writer at ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and father-in-law of
Nicholas Katzenbach, President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
'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
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
had brought him in close contact with a number of social reformers such as
Jane Addams
Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...
, 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 i ...
,
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,
Florence Kelley
Florence Molthrop Kelley (September 12, 1859 – February 17, 1932) was an American social and political reformer who coined the term wage abolitionism. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's ...
,
Julia Lathrop
Julia Clifford Lathrop (June 29, 1858 – April 15, 1932) was an Americans, 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 th ...
,
Alice Hamilton,
Grace 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 (UK), Labour Party, and was its first Leader of the Labour Party (UK), parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. ...
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 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; it had for its first president writer
Jack London
John Griffith London (; 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 t ...
and vice president
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
. Hunter ran for political office twice on the Socialist ticket, first for
Governor of Connecticut
The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Connecticut Military Department, military forces. The Governor (United States), governor has a duty to enforce state laws, ...
in
1910
Events
January
* January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military.
* January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...
and then in
Connecticut's 4th congressional district in
1912
This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15.
In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...
; both campaigns ended in defeat. After the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
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 History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee for president. Willkie appeale ...
over President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
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 located in Pebble Beach, California, U.S.
Opened in 1919, it is regarded as one of the most beautiful courses in the world. It hugs the rugged coastline and has wide open views of Carmel Bay, o ...
. Although there was little evidence of a formal partnership, Hunter teamed with famous golf course architect
Alister MacKenzie 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). He later moved to
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, California, United States. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also ...
, 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 (1928), and improvements to the Pebble Beach course that same year, in advance of the
United States Amateur Championship (golf), 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 a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
. Robert Hunter died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
at his home in
Montecito, California
Montecito (archaic use of Spanish for woodland or countryside) is an unincorporated town in Santa Barbara County, California, United States.McCormack, Don (1999). ''McCormack's Guides Santa Barbara and Ventura 2000''. Mccormacks Guides. p. 58. ...
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 and had worked to preserve the park areas at
Point Lobos in
Monterey, California
Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a popu ...
. She died in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
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
1874 births
1942 deaths
American male writers
American socialists
Writers from Terre Haute, Indiana
Indiana University Bloomington alumni
University of California faculty
American male golfers
American golf course architects
People from Pebble Beach, California