Hunter Dupree of Squirrel Island, Maine and Cambridge, Massachusetts died peacefully at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Nov. 30, 2019 surrounded by the love of his family and friends from home and abroad.  He was nearly 99. 

He was a loving husband, father, grandfather and, for three months, a great-grandfather, who will be deeply missed by his two children, Marguerite W Dupree and Anderson H “Andy” Dupree, and their spouses Rick Trainor and Jillon Dupree; four grandchildren: Richard and Meg Trainor and Nicholas and Sarah Dupree, Richard’s wife, Rachel Finnegan, their daughter Juno, and Meg’s fiancé, Luke Auty.  

Hunter (a distinguished historian of American science and technology trained at Oberlin and Harvard who held faculty positions at Texas Tech, Berkeley and Brown) and his late wife of 68 years, Betty, loved the Island, and they delighted in their many island friends and in hosting family and friends at Squirrel.

Hunter and Betty acquired their house on Squirrel Island overlooking Cunner Point in 1971. For each of the next 41 summers Hunter came to the Island, and even during the past seven summers, when he could no longer make the journey, he relished photographs of the Island, prominently displayed in his apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He loved boating, perhaps because he grew up in Texas far from the sea and then served in the U.S. Navy during World War II on the Battleship USS Tennessee at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. For many years he maintained a Boston Whaler on a mooring in front of the house off Cunner Point, unloading groceries onto the Point when the tide permitted and carrying the dinghy up the beach on his back; he and Betty especially enjoyed exploring the islands and coast. Hunter wrote for the Squirrel Island Squid, supported the Squirrel Island Chapel and its music, and served for many years as a trustee (and for a time chair) of the Squirrel Island Library, where in later years he could be found regularly after 11 a.m. reading the day’s newspaper.

Hunter’s funeral will be on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 11 a.m. in First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden St, Cambridge Massachusetts, followed by a reception and lunch.  Burial then follows in Mt Auburn Cemetery.