[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8337]
[From the U.S. 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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