Katharine Blair Hunt (1904-1994)

Katharine Blair was born to Dr. and Mrs. William Newton Blair on August 3, 1904 in Pyong Yang, Korea. The Pyong Yang Mission Station was one of the largest of its kind in the world, and through her father, Katharine had the opportunity to meet some of the most prominent Presbyterian missionaries of the early twentieth century. Katharine attended school at the Pyong Yang Foreign School for missionaries’ children through the eighth grade. Afterwards, she traveled to Topeka, Kansas to continue her education. After high school graduation she matriculated through Park College, graduating in 1926. After graduation she spent a summer pursuing a graduate education at Iowa University, then taught English in Herculaneum, Missouri, and then returned to Korea to teach high school-level English at the Pyong Yang Foreign School. It was there that she renewed her acquaintance with Bruce Finley Hunt. They married in September of 1932. During a fulough in America in 1936, the Hunts left the Presbyterian Church USA and helped in the founding of a new, more conservative branch of the Presbyterian denomination—the Presbyterian Church of America—later renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This action caused them to separate from family and friends that they had known in Korea. In 1937 the newly established Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions sent the Hunt family back to Asia—but to Manchuria, rather than Korea. Brue and Kathy had five children together—these being Lois Margaret (born on August 30, 1933), Bertha (born in 1935), Katharine Condit (born in 1937 and was always known as “Connie”), and a pair of twins—David and Mary (born in 1940). In the coming years, the Japanese military invaded Korea and Manchuria. The new authority in that region intended to enforce Shinto-ism and Shrine Worship—something that the Hunts and their Manchurian Christian followers stead-fastly refused to accept. Katharine’s husband was arrested twice in the fall of 1941 and spent months in prison for his refusal to submit to the Japanese spiritual expectations. During his time in prison, Reverend Hunt was subjected to torture. The Hunts and many other American missionaries in Asia were released from incarceration as a result of the diplomatic efforts of the US State Department, and the family (along with many other missionaries) were transported out of Asia on board the Grispholm in a prisoner exchange. The Hunts finally arrived in New York Harbor in the summer of 1942. The Hunts spent most of their time in the US during WWII in southern California, though Reverend Hunt’s work required frequent travel. After the war, Bruce returned to Korea, leaving Katharine and their five children in America. When Katharine and the children did travel to the Orient, they moved to Japan and taught English there. The rest of their lives were marked with periodic travels back-and-forth between Korea and America and frequent separations between husband and wife. It was during these times of separation that Bruce and Kathy wrote to each other extensively and the family papers is filled with dozens of folders containing their correspondence. Katherine B. Hunt died on December 8, 1994.

Source: "Hunt Family Collection; The Archives of the Montgomery Library of Westminster Theological Seminar" ⁹⁷⁷⁶

Bruce Finley Hunt (1903-1992)

Bruce Finley Hunt was born in Pyongyang, Korea to William Brewster Hunt and Bertha Finley Hunt on June 4, 1903. Because of his parents’ missionary work in Korea, Bruce grew up in an evangelical Christian environment and participated in evangelical gatherings and Bible schools. In 1919 he traveled to the US to attend Soldan High School, in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1920 he was admitted to Wheaton College and spent two years there before transferring to Rutgers University. After graduation, he was admitted to the Princeton Theological Seminary. Hunt returned to Korea to begin his missionary career in the fall of 1928. Bruce married Katharine Blair on September 27, 1932. Katharine was also the daughter of a missionary in Korea—William Newton Blair. The two had five children together—these being Lois Margaret (born on August 30, 1933), Bertha (born in 1935), Katharine Condit (born in 1937 and was always known as “Connie”), and a pair of twins—David and Mary (born in 1940). Hunt took a sabbatical from his missionary work from 1935 to 1936 to matriculate through Westminster Theological Seminary. He left the Presbyterian Church USA in 1936 to become one of the founding members of the Presbyterian Church of America (later re-named the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Following his matriculation at WTS, Hunt moved to Manchuria in late 1936 to resume his missionary work. His mission was one that was sponsored and supervised by the Presbyterian Independent Mission Board, and the Hunt collection contains a wide assortment of papers from that governing body—an institution established by J. Gresham Machen. He later became a missionary under the auspices of the OPC Foreign Mission Board. In late 1941, Hunt was arrested by the Japanese authorities in Manchura, but was soon released, as no valid charges were made against him. He was arrested again the day after his intital release. The Japanese in Manuchuria tried to force Hunt and his Christian followers to submit to Shinto-ism and Shrine worship, and consequently some of the members of Hunt’s flock were martyred for their faith. American diplomats were able to successfully negotiate the release of dozens of missionaries in the Far East, and the Hunt family (as well as many others) were removed from Japanese incarceration in the summer of 1942. This group of missionaries and their families were shipped out of Japan and Korea on board a ship called the Gripsholm, which sailed westward, through the Indian Ocean, around Africa and then through the Atlantic to the Port of New York, arriving late in the summer of 1942. Reverend Hunt wrote extensively about this episode of his life following his release, and also spoke about it on the lecture circuit in the United States. After World War II Hunt returned to Korea in 1946. With the outbreak of the Korean Conflict in 1950, Hunt had to leave the peninsula again, but he returned in 1952. Following retirement from active missionary work, Hunt moved to the United States and spent the majority of his time travelling to various OPC churches to promote mission work. He also wrote and preached extensively. In his career as a missionary, Hunt adopted the Nevius mission method that emphasized (among other things) the Bible’s centrality in Christian faith. The Hunt family collection contains folders on the Nevius missionary method. As a Presbyterian, Hunt was a strong believer in Calvinist theology. Following his retirement, Hunt returned to the United States. He died on July 26, 1992 in the Quarryville Nursing Home, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bruce Finley Hunt’s name, written in Korean, appears here: ??? and more accurately translates to “Han Bu Sun.”

Source: "Hunt Family Collection; The Archives of the Montgomery Library of Westminster Theological Seminar" ⁹⁷⁷⁶