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Donald L. Hunting of East Hampton died February 19, 2018, at Southampton Hospital. He was 90.
According to his son, Mr. Hunting stepped off the train in East Hampton in May 1944, fresh from a two-year stint at the front desk of the Waldorf Astoria. He came to East Hampton to work in the front office of the Sea Spray Inn, east of Main Beach. He was 16 at the time.
Born in Philadelphia on November 19, 1927, he descended from the youngest brother of East Hampton’s second minister, Nathaniel Hunting. Sharing the New England heritage of East Hampton’s natives, this village became the home where he would be found whenever business permitted. Called away for two years to serve in the U.S. Army, he returned to take a position in the New York offices of Nabisco. After six years there—during which he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from New York University—he lived during the week with his mother and siblings in Bronxville, and spent weekends and holidays working for Arnold Bayley at the Sea Spray.
In 1953 he resigned from Nabisco to lease the Hedges Inn from the legendary Mary Hamlin. He operated the inn for the summer season and was negotiating for 1954 when Mr. Bayley made him a year-round offer of employment that he couldn’t refuse. He returned to the Sea Spray and a father-son relationship matured between the two that lasted until the latter died in 1970.
The 1953-54 winter was spent at the Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach, apprenticed to Elliot Bishop, who had managed the Montauk Manor and the Seven Ponds Inn here.
En route home from Florida he married Marilyn Neuhauser of New York City at St. Bartholomews—with a reception next door at his old stomping ground, the Waldorf—culminating a six-year courtship during which they had been co-workers at Nabisco.
The Huntings made their home in East Hampton and raised two sons, David, now of Rochester, and Paul, who died in 2009. Mrs. Hunting died in 2007.
The Huntings left Sea Spray in 1964 to buy The 1770 House and operated the inn, its two dining rooms and tap room for several years. The family then relocated to the Circle, while Mr. Hunting returned to the profession he had been schooled for. In 1968 he established the firm of Hunting, Rose & Wingate, Certified Public Accountants, which served the East End’s residents and businesses for 30 years.
Mr. Hunting served as director and president of the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, vestryman and treasurer of St. Luke’s Church, as a member of the Lions Club, a member of the Men’s Advisory Board of the East Hampton Library, and was one of the first men elected to the library’s board of managers. He was also director and treasurer of the East Hampton Historical Society for a decade or more.
He served as an assistant Cub Scout Den leader, PTA vice president, chairman of East Hampton Village’s Planning Board, member of the Circle Association, director of the Village Improvement Society, member of the Community Preservation Fund Advisory Board and a member of the East Hampton Senior Nutrition Center Site Council.
Mr. Hunting walked for health and was a well-known figure on Main Street.
In addition to his son he leaves a grandson, Maxwell Hunting of Virginia; a sister, Sr. Theresette Hunting of New Jersey; a sister-in-law, Ute Hunting of Hawthorne; and a daughter-in-law, Carol Hunting of Rochester.
A graveside service was held at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton following a service on Monday at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home.
Memorial donations may be made to the East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937.
on Feb 27, 2018