Shinnecock Elder And World War II Veteran Lubin Hunter Dies At 104

Six years ago, Lubin Hunter’s older brother, Earl Hunter, turned 100 years old. There was a party to mark the occasion, held in Hawaii, where Earl had made his home years after serving there during World War II.

Lubin’s son, Wickham Hunter, wasn’t sure if his father, 98 at the time, would be up for the long journey from their home on the Shinnecock Territory to Hawaii. But when he asked Lubin if he wanted to go, he immediately said that he did.

They endured the 11-hour direct flight together and stayed for two weeks, spending time with other family members who made their way over separately. Lubin’s three other children — Renee, Lubin Jr. (who died of a heart attack in 2018) and Roberta — were there as well, along with plenty of cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Even Miss Hawaii made a special appearance at the party.

Wickham remembers his father enjoying the trip, likely knowing it would be his last. He remembers taking a walk with him on Waikiki Beach — with Lubin in front, outpacing the rest of his much younger family members.

A century into his time on Earth, Lubin Hunter continued to defy expectations for his age and displayed what seemed to be a knack for not only surviving, but thriving. From making it through his service in World War II flying B17 bombers in England and the South Pacific, to continuing to maintain and make use of his driver’s license until the age of 101, slowing down significantly was not a reality he had to face until the tail end of his long and extraordinary life.

Lubin Hunter died on January 17, at his home on the Shinnecock Territory. He was 104, just four months away from his 105th birthday.

Much of Hunter’s life was marked by a desire and willingness to serve: his country, his community, his family. In an interview with The Southampton Press for an article commemorating his 100th birthday in 2017, Hunter reflected on his time serving in the Army Air Corps. While in the service, Hunter was mostly surrounded by peers who were white, even though it was a time when troops were segregated. As a Native American, he was classified by the Army as white, and it gave him an interesting perspective.

“The white boys over in Europe were treated like kings, and the colored troops, in England and Germany, well, they were down below,” he said, speaking about that time in his life while sitting in an armchair in the living room of his home on Shinnecock.

He was clearly proud of his time in the service, but decades removed from combat had not erased the pain of seeing friends die.

“It used the break our hearts to see our friends go down,” he said.

Hunter grew up on the Shinnecock Territory, attending its one-room schoolhouse as a child before going to Southampton High School, where he was a standout track athlete, once holding the school record in the mile. He was offered a scholarship to Ohio State University, but could not attend, he said, because his family could not afford the application fee. After graduating, he took a job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard before being drafted into the war.

Upon returning from the war, Hunter put his funds from the G.I. Bill to good use, earning a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, graduating in 1953. Other jobs included working for the New York Transit Authority as an inspector agent, and working as a Social Services investigator. But his longest tenure was working in management for the New York City Housing Authority. In that job, Hunter interviewed families in tough neighborhoods who wanted to move into the new projects that were popping up in the city, trying to make sure they had the qualifications — no criminal record, etc. — to be there. Hunter retired from the Housing Authority in the late 1970s and, after a brief spell, joined the workforce again, taking a job with the IRS, working in lower Manhattan, a job he held into the 1980s.

Hunter bought his first house shortly after returning from the war, paying less than $5,000 for his home on 119th Road in Baisley Park in Jamaica, Queens. It was a neighborhood, he said, that became open to African American families after working-class Irish families started making more money and moved out. Extreme segregation on Long Island at the time prevented him from having a lot of choice when it came to where he was going to live —at that time, desirable neighborhoods like Levittown and Massapequa had covenants strictly forbidding the sale of homes to people of color, a discriminatory process known as redlining.

Hunter took it upon himself to make sure Baisley Park was a desirable place to raise a family, starting the Baisley Park Community League, a group of residents that put together functions and worked to make the area a good place to live and raise a family, cleaning up the parks, and making sure no nefarious activity was going on there.

Roberta Hunter said she was inspired by the way her father put his heart into serving his community, and recalled that both her father and her mother— Elaine Hunter, who died in 1987 — were tireless advocates.

“I grew up in a household where my parents were very busy with community issues,” she said during the 2017 interview. “During that time period, particularly during the civil rights movement, you had young veterans who went out, fought for their country and said, we’re not going to come back and not have opportunities for education, housing and employment.

“There was always that kind of conversation going on in our house,” she continued. “I heard my father and his friends talking about current events and issues that were impacting them. The NAACP was just starting out at that time, and he was very active in the NAACP in Queens.”

After Elaine’s death, Hunter built his house on the territory and moved back home, as did three of his four children — Roberta, and sons Wickham and Lubin Jr., known as Michael “Tree” Hunter, who earned his nickname because he was nearly 7 feet tall. Roberta and Wickham were already living there with their families when their father moved back. His other daughter, Renee Hunter, lives in Manhattan.

“I always knew I’d come home to Shinnecock,” Hunter said in 2017. “There’s no place like Shinnecock.”

He spoke of being able to see the ocean waves from his window while growing up, and traversing Shinnecock Bay in the winter by foot when it would freeze, going over to Westwoods for firewood. The bay froze easily in the days before the hurricane of 1938, which first created the cut that made the water brackish and thus more resistant to freezing.

In the late 1980s, Hunter was the founding member of the Shinnecock Golfers Association, which hosts tournaments at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Noyac Golf Club and Rock Hill Country Club, raising money for its scholarship fund and to promote activities for youth on the territory. Hunter said he enjoyed playing golf, which he picked up while taking a job as a caddy at Shinnecock Hills during his youth. Shortly after his 101st birthday, Hunter was able to have a special meeting with Tiger Woods, at the U.S. Open, which was held at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in 2018.

Longevity is likely a genetic trait carried by the Hunter family — Earl lived to be 101, and other family members surpassed their 90th birthdays. The entire Shinnecock community came out to celebrate Hunter with a big party for his 100th birthday at the community center in May 2017. But Hunter liked to credit his upbringing and time spent on Shinnecock, saying the availability of fresh local seafood, and other natural foods kept him healthy.

Keeping both his body and his mind active and engaged over time surely was also a factor. Hunter made good on all the time he was given, his son Wickham said.

“He was a humble man, but he was strong. And he would try to do as much as he could for anyone who asked. That’s the kind of human he was, the kind of man he was. He had his faults, but I always recognized him as being a man — an exceptional man.”

Hunter is survived by his children, Renee Hunter, Wickham Hunter and Roberta Hunter, and was predeceased by his son, Lubin Jr. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, January 21, at 1 p.m. at the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church, followed by interment with Air Force honors at Shinnecock Cemetery. Arrangements are by the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton.