#1 Printed in the May 20, 1968 Pilot Tribune, Blair, Nebraska

E.C. Hunt, Sr. Passed Away Sat.

Word was received, just before press time, that E.C. Hunt, Sr. had passed away. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 21, at 2:00 p.m. in the Blair Methodist Church.

Mr. Hunt was a pioneer in the independent telephone business and was active in the Hunt telephone properties up to his retirement several years ago.

A complete obituary will appear in Thursday’s Enterprise. Campbell Mortuary Is in charge of arrangements.

#2 Printed in the May 23, 1968 Enterprise, Blair, Nebraska

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Services For E.C. Hunt Held Tues., May 21

An era passed with the last of the pioneer telephone men of Nebraska, Mr. E.C. Hunt, died this week. He established a group on 38 telephone exchanges with headquarters in Blair, which today is one of the community’s leading industries. His initiation in the industry came as he started as a wire chief in Hannibal, Missouri in 1907, in the days when a telephone and a light were relatively new media in American life. During a lifetime of some 85 years he watched from the invention of the modern day miracles to their perfection in our present society.

It was not enough that he should have lived through this period of industrialization and change, but hat he should have been a pioneer in its earliest development and later consolidation.

His father, Marshall Hunt, of Belle Plaine, Iowa, was the engineer in charge of the Municipal Light Plant and young E.C. was early initiated into the mysteries of electrical work and telephone communication.

He was born July 20, 1883 at Muscatine, Iowa, and on July 16, 1909 was married to Vera K. Burke of Hannibal, Missouri. He made a major decision in his early life to leave the electrical field and go to the field of communication, so when the opportunity came to be manager of the Hampton, Iowa telephone exchange, he took the position. Later, in 1910, he moved to Creighton, Nebraska where he became a partner in that exchange, and in 1926 came to Blair, which he made the headquarters for his expanding business interests.

Men of his generation who showed leadership learned to trust their own judgment and to make shrewd appraisals of those who worked with them in the business world. Mr. Hunt never lost his desire to be a rugged individualist and a person of independent action and expression. He left the active duties of his business to his two sons some 25 years ago when he devoted himself to travel and to the many enterprises which occupied his attention. However, he still retained his presidency of the firm until 1966 when he was struck by a city bus in Tampa, Florida. He sustained serious injuries and had been hospitalized ever since.

The death of his wife in 1962 was a great loss to Mr. Hunt. The couple had lived happily together for some 53 years.

Surviving are two sons, Emory Jr. and Robert of Blair, 4 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren; a brother, Earl of Albert Lea, Minnesota and a sister, Letha Knable of Peoria, Illinois.

Funeral services were held on Tuesday, May 21st at 2 P.M. at the First Methodist Church with the Rev. Richard Atherton officiating. The Campbell Mortuary was in charge of arrangements and interment was in the Blair Cemetery.

Pallbearers were Fred Brunk, Wayne Lambertz, Don Feer, Clark O’Hanlon, Gordon Vinton and Alfred Sick.

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Obituaries courtesy of Washington County Genealogical Association; newspaper clippings and leaflets on file at the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska

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