Katharine Blair and Bruce Finley Hunt

KATHARINE BLAIR, daughter of EDITH PEARL ALLEN and DR. WILLIAM NEWTON BLAIR, was born August 3, 1904 in Pyeng Yang, Korea,⁶²⁹ and died December 8, 1994.⁴⁵³² She is buried in Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn, Montgomery, Pennsylvania.⁴⁵⁶

She married REV. BRUCE FINLEY HUNT on September 27, 1932.⁹⁷⁷⁶ He was born June 4, 1903 in P'yongyang, North Korea,⁴⁵⁶ and died July 26, 1992 in Quarryville, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.^{456, 9768} He is buried in Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn, Montgomery, Pennsylvania.⁴⁵⁶

• Descendant Reports
  • Samuel Houston Descendant Report (Ancestor of Katharine Blair)

Sheboygan Press, March 25, 1958⁸⁴⁴¹

Missionary Conference In Cedar Grove On Friday

Women of Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Cedar Grove, will be hostesses to churches of Wisconsin Presbytery at the spring missionary conference, Friday.

Features speakers will be the Rev. and Mrs. Bruce F. Hunt, missionaries to Korea, with the former speaking at the 10 a.m. session and both giving messages at the 1:30 p.m. meeting. Both have missionary backgrounds, Mrs. Hunt's father, William Newton Blair, missionary to Korea for 45 years, was the author of "Gold in Korea." She will discuss the problems and opportunities of a missionary family and also the reaching and teaching of Korean women for the gospel.

In addition to her direct missionary work and her activities as the mother of five children, Mrs. Hunt has been teaching at a school for children of missionaries and she also teaches English to Korean Bible School and Seminary students. Many GIs stationed in Korea have enjoyed the hospitality of the Rev. and Mrs. Hunt's home in Pusan, Korea.

Philadelphia Inquirer, July 28, 1992⁹⁷⁶⁸

Rev. B. F. Hunt, 89, missionary to Korea seized by Japanese

The Rev. Bruce F. Hunt, 89, a long-time missionary to Korea who was imprisoned for refusing to pay homage to the Japanese emperor, died Saturday in Quarryville, Lancaster County.

Mr. Hunt, who wrote "For A Testimony", a book recounting his months of incarceration, died of complications following surgery for a leg fracture, according to his son-in-law, John J. Mitchell.

Mitchell said Mr. Hunt suffered the fracture when he slipped and fell at the Quarryville Presbyterian Home, his home for the last five years.

He was widely respected among Koreans, both Christian and non-Christian.

"They used to say of him that he has cow's hair," Mitchell said, recalling Mr. Hunt's red hair, which Koreans found unusual. "It was kind of a standing joke among them."

He was born in Pyongyang, Korea, of missionary parents. He grew up there and spoke the language like a native.

His wife, Katherine Blair Hunt, was also reared in Korea.

In 1928, shortly after finishing his theological training at Princeton Theological Seminary, Mr. Hunt returned to Korea as a missionary. He was sent by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., in which he had been ordained.

Mr. Hunt also spent time in the mission field in Harbin, China.

"He was an outgoing man, He did mostly field preaching. . . He would go out to little villages, and when he got a little crowd, he would preach," Mitchell said.

He was imprisoned by the Japanese shortly before their attack on Pearl Harbor when he refused to pay religious homage to the emperor, whom the Japanese believed to be a god.

His imprisonment was harsh, and food was sparse.

"It was a testimony to his Christian faith that he lived through it. He went through considerable suffering because of his faith," Mitchell said.

After Pearl Harbor, Mr. Hunt was arrested and repatriated. He performed home missionary efforts in Southern California for the duration of the war. In 1946, he returned to Korea, where he continued his missionary work until 1976.

He had settled in Abington and worked actively among Korean residents in the United States, particularly those in the Philadelphia area.

Mr. Hunt is survived by his wife; daughters, Bertha Kinnaird, Katherine Stonehouse and Mary Heerema; son, David Hunt; 20 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow at the Quarryville Presbyterian Home, followed by burial at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn.