Larry O. Hunter died Friday, Aug. 22, 2008, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane after suffering a sudden heart attack on the University of Idaho Golf Course in Moscow.
   
Larry was a beloved and devoted grandfather, father, father-in-law and friend. He was born at Labette County in the southeastern part of Kansas, in 1937. The second of six children to Bert and Evelyn Hunter, he grew up farming.
   
An Eagle Scout and all-league basketball player, Larry graduated at the top of his class of 10 at Galesburg High School and won a scholarship to attend Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University. There he quarterbacked the Hornets to the 1958 Mineral Water Bowl and played semi-professional baseball during the summer. At Emporia, he studied math and physical education, earning a bachelor's degree in 1959, and a master's degree in 1962.

Larry Hunter began his career as a teacher and coach in tiny towns of Kansas, including Sedgwick High School, where he coached all sports and taught high school math. It was in Sedgwick that he met Faye Davison, whom he married in 1961. Larry and Faye had three sons together.

From 1964 to 1965, Larry attended Harvard University under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation's Institute of Science and Mathematics. There he received a second master's degree in education. Returning from Massachusetts to Kansas, he spent three years as a teacher and then as a research specialist in the Wichita Public Schools.

Larry left Kansas in 1968 to join the administration at newly founded Southwest State University at Marshall, Minn., and quickly rose to the position of vice president for administrative affairs. While in Minnesota, he also earned a private pilot's license.

Larry moved with his family to the Palouse in 1975, joining the University of Idaho as the director of management information services. In a 24-year career at the university, he held various administrative positions and was active in the Rocky Mountain Association of Institutional Research. He completed his doctorate degree at UI in 1983, and retired in 1999.

Larry was a past president of the Moscow Central Lions Club and for many years was an officer of the Men's Golf League at the UI Golf Course. He had played every golf course in northern Idaho, and in his retirement had begun to pick off courses in the Valley of the Sun during winters in Phoenix. For the last several years he played tournaments in the Inland Empire Senior Golf Association, where he claimed to have won enough to cover the cost of his entry fees.

Larry was a lifelong athlete and outdoorsman, a runner and biker, an occasional bird hunter and an avid fly fisherman, who tied his own flies and cast lines at Kelly Creek. His secret spots for finding huckleberries, morels and cutthroat trout will never be revealed.

An intrepid traveler, he took any opportunity to visit his brothers, sisters, sons and granddaughters. At the time of his death he was anticipating a second trip to China. One of his favorite trips was to Scotland, where he played the Old Course at St. Andrews and toured the Glenlivet distillery, sampling a wee dram.

Survivors include three sons, Larry (Chip) and his wife Julie of Madison, Wis., Scott and his partner Frank Unabia of New York, N.Y., and Mike and his wife Angie Ma of Shanghai, China. Their mother resides in Pullman. Larry is also survived by two granddaughters, Olivia and Allison Hunter, both of Madison; by two brothers, Gary Hunter and Terry Hunter; by three sisters, Anne Thomas, Judy Coots and Mary Bass; and by many nieces and nephews.

His memory was honored with a gathering of friends and family on August 27, 2008 at the 1912 Center in Moscow.

Memorials in Larry's name may be made to the Moscow Central Lions Club, P.O. Box 8655, Moscow, ID 83843; or to an organization of your choice.

ONLINE CONDOLENCES can be left at www.shortsfuneralchapel.net.