Nathaniel C. Hutner

Nathaniel Cornwall Hutner
Nathaniel Hutner, longtime poet, playwright, and devoted son, brother, and uncle, died on September 1, 2025, at EastView in Middlebury, Vermont. He was 75.
Born in Middlebury, Vermont, Nathaniel grew up in Princeton, New Jersey where he attended the Nassau Street School and Princeton Country Day School, where he played the Charles Laughton role in Witness for the Prosecution opposite the young Christopher Reeve. He went on to study at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was editor of the student newspaper, then at Harvard University, the University of Göttingen in Germany, and New College, Oxford.
He graduated from Harvard in Classics (Latin) magna cum laude in 1972. He was also a fluent reader of classic Greek. At Harvard, he was a member of the Fly Club.
Before his studies at Oxford, Nathaniel worked a series of jobs he remembered with fondness: as a lunch cook at the Rusty Scupper in Princeton, a stable boy at the Princeton Riding Center-a position he often described as his favorite because it allowed him to spend so much time around horses-and a bookseller at the Strand Bookstore in New York City.
After Oxford, Nathaniel spent two decades working on Wall Street at his father's investment firm, Pulsifer & Hutner; yet writing remained his true vocation.
His theater debut was Godot Arrives, praised by Mel Gussow in The New York Times as one of the best off-off-Broadway plays of the 1993–94 season. Other plays include Godot Imagine Godot and Godot Alive or Dead. His poems appeared in many journals, and he published several books of poetry, as well as collections of his complete poems and plays. During his decades in New York City, he served as Playwright-in-Residence at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and as a script reader at Circle Rep.
He was also a member of the Amateur Comedy Club, the Montauk Club, and the Harvard Club, where he ran a literary program that brought well-known writers and academics to share and discuss their work. His memberships in these social and cultural organizations enriched his life and friendships.
As well as his fluency in the Classics, Nathaniel was fluent in French and German. He treasured his summers in Paris during his college years, especially enjoying French cuisine. He was noted in the family for his baking skills, particularly his French strawberry tarts, apple pies, and Baked Alaska. He spent many hours teaching a niece and nephew how to carry on a family tradition of pie-baking. He was also a lover of classical music and was a skilled amateur pianist, happy to entertain family and friends with Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, the "Moonlight Sonata" being a favorite.
In 2018, he moved from Brooklyn to EastView in Middlebury, where he continued to write and to share his work with those around him.
Nathaniel was pre-deceased by his parents, Frances and Simeon Hutner [not Sr.], his sister Elizabeth, and her son Sam. He is survived by his brothers Daniel and Simeon, and his sister Louise, along with nine nieces and nephews and one great-nephew.
He will be remembered for his love of words, his entertaining stories and jokes, his kind heart, his devotion to family and friends, and his innate ebullience with an ever-present smile and laughter.
In lieu of flowers, and in honor of Nat's dedication to both poetry and the theater, donations made be made to: 1. Ruth Stone House in Goshen, VT (ruthstonehouse.org) "RSH creates and nurtures a community that supports making the literary arts, particularly poetry and bookmaking, a vital and enriching aspect of people's lives." 2. The Town Hall Theater on Merchants Row in Middlebury (townhalltheater.org) "a cultural anchor for Addison County and beyond; a shared resource for artists, non-profits; a destination that unites a diverse cross-section of our community "