CORNWALL, Conn. —Huntington (“Hunt”) Williams died April 10, surrounded by family, as the result of an injury sustained from a fall. He was 95 years old and had lived in Cornwall, a town he loved deeply, for the last 45 years.
Born in 1930 in Hartford, Hunt was raised in rural Glastonbury, a town where his family had lived for several generations and where his great-grandfather started a shaving soap business, the J.B. Williams Company. His father, Percy Williams, worked for the Aetna Life Insurance Company in Hartford, and his mother, Gertrude, was a homemaker. Hunt had one older sister, Sarah, who predeceased him.
Hunt attended Glastonbury public schools, and it was in high school that he developed an interest in and lifelong passion for farming. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1953 with a degree in animal husbandry. The Korean War was going on during his college years, but Hunt was granted an educational deferment. After a summer working in Wyoming, he went on to California where he was drafted and sent to Korea. Fortunately, the cease fire went into effect in July 1953, and his military service ended in Oct. 1955.
His deep interest in agriculture and the environment was constant through the jobs he held and communities he lived in, starting with work for a feed company in New York State, followed by seven years with the Cornell Cooperative Extension providing education in dairy farming in New York’s Herkimer and Essex counties. He then moved on to Tenneco, a large conglomerate with an agricultural chemical branch, and to the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality where, among other projects, he worked on regulations regarding the development rights for farms and farmland.
During this period, he married Nancy Lewis of West Hartford. They had three sons, Peter, David and Philip.
In 1976 Hunt and his family moved to Lakeville where he began a job as an adult ed teacher in the vocational agricultural department at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, a position he held for 10 years. It was during this time, that Hunt and Nancy divorced, and Hunt moved to a house on Cream Hill Road in Cornwall.
He met and eventually married Rebecca (Becky) Gold West. They built a house on a portion of Cream Hill Farm—a peaceful tract of land with beautiful views—where they lived with their combined families, Becky’s two sons and Hunt’s three sons. Hunt’s last fulltime job was working for his brother-in-law Ralph Gold, who had a John Deere business in Bantam.
After Becky’s death in 1994, Hunt joined the fire department as an EMT, a commitment he regarded as an opportunity to give back to Cornwall. He will long be remembered for his support of John Welles who, when he decided he was too sick to continue living, took his own life in June 2004.
Hunt’s years of service in Cornwall include being on the Zoning Board of Appeals for 20 years and chairman for half that time. He was the Civil Preparedness director of Cornwall for 10 years. He served as a Cornwall Conservation Trust director, drove for FISH, and for five years was a “friendly visitor” to a retired Hotchkiss teacher. He served on numerous committees, including the Agriculture Advisory Commission.
During these last 30 years Hunt shared his life and house with another Cornwall neighbor, Honora (“Nora”) Horan, and, first, their Airedale Lulu, and more recently their Welsh terrier Maggie. He thoroughly enjoyed his retirement: he joyfully cut and split countless cords of wood to heat the house; in late February he would tap 25 maple trees along Cream Hill Road, collect the sap bucket by bucket and carefully boil the sap until he had perfect maple syrup.
He listened to opera while making apple pie or, later, baked apples. He traveled extensively: to New Zealand, Hawaii and the Adirondacks with his dear friend Denny Frost; made multiple trips to Europe with Nora, including one following the places in France where his father had fought in World War I. He reveled in having nearby family and watched with wonder and delight as granddaughters grew from newborns to young women. And through it all he continued to make improvements to his house, a neverending “work in progress.”
Hunt is survived by his three sons, Peter and his daughter Francesca (Colorado), David (Cornwall), and Philip and his wife Keirsten along with their two daughters, Amelia and Natalie (Colebrook); also by his two stepsons, Phillip West, his wife Kathy and daughters Thea and Andra (Cornwall), and Charles, his wife Michele and sons Woody and Clark (Montana); by his niece Anne Krauss and her husband Stephen (Maine); by his loving and beloved significant other/partner, Nora Horan, their terrier Maggie; and by the countless friends and neighbors who treasured his friendship.
Donations in Hunt’s memory may be made to his favorite charity, Heifer International (Heifer.org); the Cornwall Fire Department (cornwallfire.org), the Cornwall Conservation Trust (cornwallconservationtrust.org), or the Connecticut Farmland Trust (ctfarmland.org).
A memorial service will be held Sunday, May 31; details to be announced.