Charles Hatch Hunter RIP

Kyt · Apr 15, 2008

washingtonpost.com

Charles Hatch Hunter, 91, who served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II and who enjoyed a long medical career as a radiologist in Washington, died of complications of renal disease April 8 at Woodside Center in Silver Spring.

Dr. Hunter, a Silver Spring resident, operated a private radiology practice in Northwest Washington from the mid-1950s to 1964. He also served for several years on the staff at Hadley, Greater Southeast and D.C. General hospitals.

He left Washington in 1971 to join the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., where he became chief of radiology. In 1977, he returned to Washington to work for the VA Medical Center and retired as radiology chief in 1991.

Dr. Hunter, a Washington native, was the grandson of slaves and the son of D.C. schoolteachers. He graduated from Dunbar Senior High School, and he received from Howard University a bachelor's degree in biology in 1937, a master's degree in physics in 1939, and a medical degree in 1950.

In 1938, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. He attended flight training school in Tuskegee, was a first lieutenant flight commander at Fort Knox, Ky., and served on a bombing squad.

He was passionate about being one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the country's first black military airmen, said a daughter, Dr. Barbara Sanders of White Plains, N.Y. Not even the segregated conditions he encountered on Southern bases deterred him.

"He loved flying airplanes and training in different parts of the country," Sanders said. "When you talked about Tuskegee and what it was like to be in the Air Force, his eyes lit up."

After his discharge in 1946, he attended Howard University College of Medicine on the GI Bill. There he met a classmate who was studying to be a pediatrician, and they married in 1952.

After graduation, he completed his internship and residency in radiology at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis.

Dr. Sanders was a member of numerous medical and honor societies, and he belonged to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

He enjoyed photography and genealogy, and was his family's archivist. He also was an avid reader of history and science.

His wife of 54 years, Dr. Gertrude Teixeira Hunter, died in 2006.

Survivors, in addition to his daughter, include five other children, Dr. James B. Hunter II of Bridgewater, N.J., Antoinette Reynolds and Charlotte Hunter, both of Silver Spring, Jacquelyn Jackson of Washington and Cheryl Anderson of Chevy Chase; and seven grandchildren.

Throughout the years, Dr. Sanders maintained contact with his military colleagues and was a member of the Eastern Region of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. He also collected Tuskegee Airmen memorabilia and built model World War II airplanes.

He was mentioned in the 1997 book, "The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation."
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 15, 2008

A man of conviction and passion. RIP.

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Charles Hatch Hunter RIP

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