Hunter, Walter Samuel (1889-1954)
Role: professor of PsychologyDates: 1936-1954
Portrait Location: Library Annex
Artist: Duphiney, Wilfred I. (1884 - 1960)
Portrait Date: 1954
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 31 1/2
Framed Dimensions: 37 3/4
Brown Portrait Number: 163
Brown Historical Property Number: 1527
Walter Samuel Hunter was a beloved Brown University professor of psychology, known for promoting and encouraging the growth and independence of his students by fully entrusting them with tasks in the laboratory. Hunter believed that students should work through problems and challenges on their own. His emphasis on self-reliance, as well as his trust and belief in his students, resonated with his pupils and made him a valuable and valued teacher.
Hunter was born in Decatur, Illinois on March 22, 1889 to George and Ida (Weekly) Hunter. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas in 1910 and his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1912. From September 1912 until July 1916, Hunter taught in the department of philosophy and psychology at the University of Texas.
During these years, Hunter started a family. He married Katherine Pratt of Cleveland, Ohio in January of 1913. Their daughter Thayer was born in 1914. The next year, Katherine died. In 1917, Hunter remarried, to Alda Barber of Houston. Along with enduring many changes in his personal life, Hunter also switched jobs. During World War I, he spent a year as 1st Lieutenant and Captain in the Psychology Division of the Medical Corps of the United States Army. His responsibilities included aiding and directing the administration of psychological tests to approximately 100,000 recruits. Hunter then began teaching at the University of Kansas. He stayed there until 1925. While in Kansas, the Hunters' daughter, Helen, was born.
In 1925, Hunter and his family moved east when he accepted a teaching position at Clark University. At Clark, Hunter became the first holder of the G. Stanley Hall Professorship in Genetic Psychology. He stayed at Clark until 1936, when he moved to Rhode Island to teach at Brown. Hunter remained at Brown when on March 22, 1954, his 65th birthday, he resigned his chairmanship of the Department of Psychology. After his retirement, Hunter planned to continue teaching at the university for another five years. Unfortunately, Hunter was unable to do so. He died on August 3 of that year.
Walter Hunter's portrait was presented to Brown by many of the grateful colleagues and graduate students who worked with him between 1912 and 1954. They remembered Hunter's confidence in his students and his dedication to devoting his full energy to the job ahead. The portrait was painted by Rhode Island native Wilfred I. Duphiney, then an instructor of painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. Duphiney's other portraits at Brown include Thomas Baird Appleget (BP 190), Samuel Tomlinson Arnold (BP 172), Bruce Bigelow (BP 184), Benjamin Williams Brown (BP 171), and Harold Brooks Tanner (BP 179).
During the summer of 2009 this portrait disappeared from the auditorium of Hunter Lab and at present is unlocated.