Bob D. Hunter

Published 3:58 am Friday, September 12, 2008

HERMISTON – Bob D. Hunter, 81, of Hermiston died Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008, at the Regency Hermiston Nursing Home in Hermiston. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 15 at the Burns Mortuary Chapel in Hermiston. Burial with military honors will follow in the Pleasant View Cemetery in Stanfield.

Mr. Hunter was born Feb. 15, 1927, in Weleetka, Okla., to Walter F. and Lena Thornton Hunter. He moved to California and then to Oregon in the 1930s. At the age of 17, he served in the Merchant Marines on the SS Harriet Monroe. Then in 1945 he joined the Army and was discharged in 1946. He was awarded the Victory Metal. After his discharge he worked in road construction, driving log trucks and cement trucks in the Salem area. In 1951 he married Venita Ruth Jackson in Roseburg.

Between 1955 and 1998 he worked as a roofing contractor. He owned his own roofing business named B & D Roofing in the Salem area, and when he moved to Stanfield he opened B D Hunter Roofing, a family business that included his wife Venita, daughter Terri, and sons Mike, Larry, and Randy.

In his free time he enjoyed deer and elk hunting and fishing at Farewell Bend.

Mr. Hunter is survived by his wife, Venita Ruth Hunter of Stanfield; children Mike Hunter of Pendleton, Diane Evans of Alaska, Terri Bailey of Stanfield, Larry Hunter of Echo, Rose Hunter of Coquille, Jim Hunter of Baker City, Randy Hunter of Hermiston, Bobbie D. Hunter of Arkansas, and Cheryl Robinson of Arkansas; sisters Vernell Martin of Aumsville and Lanas Hughes of Belle Chase, La.; 16 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers Jack Hunter, Walter (Mutt) Hunter, Frank Hunter, Paul (Bud) Hunter, and Billy (Garner) Hunter; sisters Margaret Vice and Lucille DeVane; grandson Tyler Campbell; son-in-law Ron Evans; daughter-in-law Leslie Hunter; and brothers-in-law Richard Martin, Jim DeVane, and Frank Vice.

Burns Mortuary of Hermiston is in charge of arrangements.