My father, Gerry Hunt, who has died aged 82, was a well-known member of his local community in the village of Pill, Somerset. He moved there in 1966, the same year that he started working as a teacher at Pill primary school.
Gerry subsequently worked at Yeo Moor school in Clevedon and Air Balloon Hill in Bristol, where he was headteacher before moving on to become head of Colston’s primary school in the city (now Cotham Gardens school) in 1987. When he retired from teaching in 2001 he turned his attention to a range of community projects in Pill and the surrounding area.
He chaired Pill parish council for many years, helped to open its community centre, edited and distributed the Pill Paper, joined the St George’s Players (who produced the Pill pantomime) and in later years set up the Resource Centre, a community hub, where he worked until he was no longer able. He also volunteered at the Victorian gothic revival estate of Tyntesfield for more than 20 years, working there in the inventory team for the National Trust, which bought the estate in 2002; Gerry was instrumental in setting up its bookshop.
Born in Barnet, north London, Gerry was one of the four sons of Nancy (nee Butlin), a secretary, and Cedric Hunt, who managed a printing business. He went to Queen Elizabeth’s school in Chipping Barnet, then in 1960 began to study classics at University College London; he later did his teacher training at Redland College, Bristol (now part of the University of the West of England).
Gerry met Margaret Higginson when he started teaching at Pill primary; they married in 1968. They were fond of Cornwall, where they went every summer, and my sister, Briony, and I have fond memories of spending long days on Chapel Porth beach, where Gerry loved to surf. He was proudly the Chapel Porth World Belly Boarding Champion, 2003.
It is fair to say that Gerry had opinions, which were largely shaped by his daily reading of the Guardian.
He is survived by Margaret, his children, Briony and me, his grandchildren, Rory, Joe, Ivy and Sam, and his brother, Peter.
