[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 24, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H4509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING SENATOR RALPH A. HUNT, SR.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and work
of a dear friend, a North Carolina giant, the Honorable Ralph A. Hunt,
Sr.: a community leader, businessman, educator, former North Carolina
State Senator; and a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend.
Mr. Speaker, Ralph Hunt was a resident of Durham County, North
Carolina, a county that Congressman David Price and I proudly
represent. He was my constituent.
Mr. Speaker, Ralph Hunt was also a native of my congressional
district, having grown up in an adjoining county called Granville
County, North Carolina. He was the seventh of eight children born in
1932 to Johnnie and Amanda Harris Hunt.
As a young student at Mary Potter High School in Oxford, North
Carolina, which was the only high school for African Americans during
those days, Ralph grew up during the period of legal and forced
segregation in the South, which helped lay the foundation for Ralph and
others like him to get an education. Mary Potter High School was a
nationally renowned high school for African Americans.
Ralph Hunt, Sr., went on to further his education at Johnson C. Smith
University in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is a Presbyterian
school. He was drafted into the United States Army during his junior
year in school, but he was honorably discharged 2 years later from the
United States Army.
He then returned to North Carolina to complete his college education,
earning a degree in mathematics in 1956. After spending many years as
an educator at Mary Potter High School and Hillside High School, Ralph
was elected to the Durham City Council. He was one of only two African
Americans serving on the city council at that time. His fellow council
members selected him to serve as mayor pro tempore.
Ralph was then elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1985 and
served many years. During his tenure, Senator Hunt was a true statesman
who led with conviction. He served as chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, served as majority whip, and a member of the Joint
Legislative Commission on Government Operations. He introduced the
legislation that changed the election law in North Carolina to allow a
40 percent threshold to avoid a runoff in a primary.
In 1993, Senator Hunt was appointed by then-Governor Jim Hunt to the
prestigious North Carolina Utilities Commission, where he would serve
as its chair. Ralph Hunt, Sr., retired from the North Carolina
Utilities Commission in 2001 and returned to the State Senate very
briefly from 2004 to 2005.
Ralph's career in public service should serve as a marker we can all
strive to meet. He was a visionary who helped bring the Durham
community to be the economic leader that it is today.
Ralph Hunt, Sr., achieved many great things in his life, but his
greatest achievement, Mr. Speaker, was his loving family: his dear wife
of more than 50 years, Rebecca; and his three children, Ralph, Jr.,
Reginald, and Regina.
Mr. Speaker, the city of Durham, the county of Durham, and the State
of North Carolina all shine brighter because of the life and work of
Senator Ralph Hunt, Sr. We will miss him dearly, but his legacy lives
on.
Everything God gave to Ralph, he gave it back to his family and to
his community. I said those words at his memorial service the other
day, and I say it now from the well of the U.S. House of
Representatives: Everything that God gave to Ralph Hunt, Sr., he gave
it back to his family and to his community.
Mr. Speaker, in just a few moments, after the next Republican
speaker, my dear friend and colleague, Congressman David Price, who was
also a dear friend of Ralph Hunt, Sr., will give additional remarks in
tribute to this great leader.
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