Mary
Anne Knight Hunter '54 isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Whether she's
tending her center city "green space" or clearing debris to help restore a
historic cemetery, Mary Anne rolls up her sleeves and gets to work. Alumni Award 1999
Mary
Anne Knight Hunter '54 isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Whether she's
tending her center city "green space" or clearing debris to help restore a
historic cemetery, Mary Anne rolls up her sleeves and gets to work.
Her history of hard work and commitment to public service are just two reasons Mary Anne was chosen to receive an Alumni Award this year.
Mary Anne has chosen an eclectic path. A newly-minted landscape architect (she added that degree to two others in English and government administration), Mary Anne now works for Perks-Reutter Associates in Philadelphia, where she is construction coordinator for the new primate center at the Philadelphia Zoo.
Among other jobs, Mary Anne has worked as an administrator and then a teacher at a parent-run Montessori School in Philadelphia. She has also worked as planning director for the city's streets department; as an administrator for the Fels Center of Government and the American Friends Service Committee; and as a landscape architecture for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
Head of School David L. Bourns commended Mary Anne's "dedication to public service . . . wisdom, leadership skills and fresh Quaker spirit."
She has brought those qualities to her work for George School, whether as a class agent, volunteer for the Second Century Campaign or the George School Committee, where she has served since 1988. Mary Anne said she's drawn to projects that challenge her problem-solving abilities. The question becomes . . . "How can we make this thing work?" Mary Anne said, adding, "I have always had an interest in sorting things out."
Mary Anne brings those skills to bear as president of the Fair Hill Burial
Ground, a non-profit group formed about 10 years ago to restore the historic
Quaker cemetery where Lucretia Mott and other abolitionists are buried. "It's in
a North Philadelphia neighborhood besieged by illegal drug activity. Friends
from throughout the Philadelphia area have worked many Saturday mornings to
reclaim the five-acre tract," said Mary Anne, a member of Central Philadelphia
Monthly Meeting. Preserving - or creating - a sense of place lies at the heart
of many of Mary Anne's projects.
In the 1960s, she joined the League of Women Voters' successful effort to stop construction of a cross-town expressway that would have displaced many poor families and laid down a ditch between historically black and white city neighborhoods. She continues tending that sense of place today, whether it's in Fair Hill or on the George School campus. "I have a lot of affection for the physical place," Mary Anne said of George School. "I see it as an important green oasis as Bucks County becomes increasingly built up."
George School has seen four generations of her family, most recently Mary Anne and Jack's children, Ross '79 and Anne '82. All benefited from the broadening experience George School offers, Mary Anne said. George School teachers and staff do more than offer students an academic education, said Mary Anne: "They truly know how to create community."
Added April 2008: More recently Mary Anne (along with Meg Harkins '53) has been involved with the (Philadelphia) Friends Center City Retirement Community.
04/26/08