Paid Notice: Jeffrey Raymond Hunter was a longtime resident of Sag Harbor and Sagaponack.
Jeff was born in Boston in 1946 and lived with his parents, Lucille Raymond and Dr. Henry Hunter in Winchester, Massachusetts.
During his childhood, in1952, his father, a Captain in the US Navy, was stationed in Napoli, Italy. The whole family traveled on the Queen Mary to Italy and lived in Napoli for 2 years. On the sea journey they met Bob Hope’s family and many adventures ensued.
On returning to America and graduating Winchester High School Jeff spent 6 months in a Marine Officer Training Program. Shortly thereafter, he attended Emory University, graduating in 1969.
Jeff had a highly creative and curious mind and decided to attend London Film School, graduating 1972. During this time in London, on a spring break in Morocco, he met his future wife Amanda, a native Californian. She moved to London to be near Jeff and they married in King Richard the Third’s Hunting Lodge (Podenhale), in Virginia Waters, Surrey in 1974.
Jeff took on the next chapter of his life with great aplomb. He helped Amanda build and manage the first branded granola & granola factory (California REVIVAL) in Europe.
In 1981, their next adventure together took them to New York where Jeff wrote and directed a 4 part mini series, a rock n roll comedy featuring his wife’s punk band, Mande Dahl. The series was written and produced in John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s House in (Soho) NYC, In 1982 Jeff went out to Hollywood with his first novel (Weekend in Daddyville) and was offered a film option for the story. This experience inspired him to become a novelist.
In 1984, Jeff’s first and only child, Grace Diana Hunter was born in NYC. In 1990 the family moved to Sag Harbor, NY.
One of his many interesting work projects, during their life in the Hampton’s, required Jeff to travel to Gaza and build a water park for Yasser Arafat. On the way out of Gaza, his taxi was nearly hijacked and bullets sprayed the highway as the taxi sped to bring him safely through to the Israeli border security gate.
During all of these adventures and working as a successful mortgage broker, Jeff began and never stopped working on his 2nd novel: Jane’s War; a coming of age story set in Vietnam. He continued to write while working as a mortgage broker. He worked in real estate until 2016. He then retired.
His family life was kind and loving and full of fun and adventurous holidays. Jeff especially loved to ski and took the family on many ski holidays to Wyoming and Montana.
Jeff’s sense of humor was legendary. His gregarious spirit infectious. He was a loving father and is deeply missed by his family and friends.
His life ended naturally and his passing was peaceful.
Jeff will always be remembered, especially by his daughter Grace Hunter Rykken of Portland, Oregon. His son-in-law John Rykken, grandsons George Hunter & Hans Augustus, Wife Amanda Hunter, Sister Marty Hunter of Plymouth, MA, Richard Drake, Uncle Tine Hardeman, Nephew Jeff Frost Burns and, Cousin Virgilia Becker. May Jeff continue to be a shining star entertaining all the angels in Heaven.
