Dorothy Louise Beale Hunter

Obituary

Dorothy Louise Beale Hunter
ROCKVILLE, MD - Dorothy Louise Beale Hunter, 96, of Rockville, Md., died Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, in Olney, Md.
She was the mother of Scott Hunter and the grandmother of Eleanor Hunter of Aiken.
She is also survived by three other children, Jamie Hunter, Olney; Kristin Viands, Keene, N.H.; and Doug Hunter, College Park, Md.
Also, a brother, Robert Beale of Lower Burrell, Pa., grandchildren Kate Viands, Auburn, N.H.; Jenny Hunter, Rockville, Md.; Ryan Hunter, Olney, Md.; and T.J. Hunter, Tulane University. And a great granddaughter Sage Konick, Auburn, N.H.
She was pre-deceased by her husband Dr. James (Jim) Hunter, sisters Lucille Stockton and Kathleen Douthett, and a brother Floyd Beale.
Dorothy was born June 2, 1920 in Buffalo Township, Butler County, near Freeport, Pa., a daughter of Ralph and Ethel Beale.
She grew up on a dairy farm. Having skipped third grade, Dorothy graduated from Har-Brack High School in Natrona Heights, Pa., one day after her 17th birthday.
She played the piano and the organ in church while growing up. And she also played soprano saxophone in a jazz band.
She majored in Home Economics at Indiana State Teachers College in Indiana, Pa. (The school is now known as Indiana University of Pennsylvania.) She later earned a Masters Degree from the University of Maryland.
While at Indiana State Teachers College she met Jim Hunter, the son of a coal miner, also a student.
Dorothy graduated in 1941. While waiting for Jim to complete Army duty, she returned to her hometown and began her teaching career at Freeport High School. Because of gas rationing, she had to leave home at 5 a.m., riding with her Dad while he delivered his milk route. She rode the school bus to get home.
She and Jim were married on Sept. 1, 1944. After Jim completed graduate school, they moved to Maryland and Jim began teaching at Georgetown University.
While the children were young, Dorothy was a homemaker. However, when Doug, the youngest, started school she returned to teaching. She taught Home Economics at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville from 1958-1966. She was later promoted to supervisory positions within the Montgomery County School system. She served as Supervisor of Home Economics and Supervisor of Curriculum in the Division of Career and Vocational Education. She retired in 1982.
Dorothy was a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother and friend. She enjoyed cooking, reading - she read cookbooks like novels - sewing, gardening and always keeping up with her family and her circle of friends: neighbors, teachers and church friends. She maintained a near weekly phone conversation with her college roommate, with both remaining mentally very sharp well into their 90s.
Dorothy served as an elder while a member of the Darnestown (Md.) Presbyterian Church. She was a member at Rockville Presbyterian Church.
She was honored in 1983 with the Distinguished Alumni Award at IUP.
In 1950, Dorothy and Jim purchased what had once been a farmhouse with the original structure having been built in 1891. Through the years they modernized it, fixed it, expanded it, repaired it, modernized it, fixed it, repaired it, repaired it and fixed it. With the help of family and home health care (just in recent years), Dorothy continued to live in the family home until her death.
Dorothy was buried at Darnestown Presbyterian Church Cemetery on Friday, Feb. 17, in a private service. Dorothy and Jim had been married 60 years before his death in 2004. They now rest together again.
Those wishing to make memorials may do so to the IUP Foundation, specifying the Family and Consumer Sciences Education program. The address is IUP Foundation, 1011 South Drive, Sutton Hall G-1, Indiana, Pa., 15705.
Published in The Aiken Standard and North Augusta Star on Feb. 21, 2017