Forrest Richardson and I recently completed a very detailed Master Plan for the restoration/renovation of Mira Vista G&CC (formerly named Berkeley CC). This course was Hunter's one and only design. Those who know Mira Vista as it is now should be pretty amazed when the work is finally completed. Here is a brief excerpt from a portion of our master plan that talks about Robert Hunter.
Robert Hunter was born in 1874 in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he grew up the son of a factory owner who served as a colonel under Ulysses S. Grant in the American Civil War. His father's stature in the community introduced Hunter to politics at an early age. When a serious economic recession descended over the industrial economy of the U.S. in 1893, Hunter found his first calling – social work.
In 1896 Hunter undertook a project that would radically change his life and, indirectly, lead him to his historic involvement in golf – he went to work at the Charity Organization Society in Chicago. He would go on to write his first book, Tenement Conditions in Chicago (1901), and received an appointment to head the prestigious University Settlement House in New York. Hunter's life moved quickly from there. He married a wealthy heiress, Caroline Stokes, in 1903 and wrote Poverty, published in 1904, which catapulted him into the rarified air of politics and literature. However, the pace of his life and the bleak realities of his work with the poor took a toll on Hunter's health and mental well-being.
“His family and friends were extremely worried about him," says Allan Brawley, professor emeritus of social work at Arizona State University and author of a new biography on Robert Hunter, Speaking Out for America's Poor: A Millionaire Socialist in the Progressive Era. "His physician recommended sun and moderate exercise. And so Robert Hunter came to golf sometime around 1905."
While still deeply involved in politics, Hunter enjoyed the immense freedom that his newfound wealth provided. He played golf with many of the top golf professionals of the day and rapidly developed into an exceptional player who would win numerous amateur tournaments. Hunter played many of the great American courses like Shinnecock Hills and The National Golf Links and was a member at Wee Burn as early as 1911. In 1912, Hunter sailed for the British Isles to conduct an extensive study of the revered links courses. The observations he made on that and subsequent sojourns - and the friendships he forged, including one with H.S. Colt - would come to change American golf course architecture forever.
Over much of the next decade, Hunter operated at a fevered pace. He remained active in politics, both as a force in the Socialist Party and as a writer. His interest in golf, however, evolved from "therapeutic activity" into something of an obsession. Hunter became enamored with the Scottish immigrant Donald Ross and visited Ross frequently at Pinehurst. He began to correspond with other leading architects as well including Walter Travis, C.B. Macdonald, Devereux Emmet, George Crump, George C. Thomas, and A.W. Tillinghast. In his mind, if not at his hand, Hunter had already begun work on his ambitious and groundbreaking book – The Links.
In 1918, downhearted and disturbed by the state of the American Socialist movement, Hunter resigned his membership in the American Socialist Party and accepted a teaching position at the University of California in Berkeley. Unburdened by the weight of his political involvements - at least temporarily - Hunter threw himself into his passion for golf and golf course architecture.
It was in 1920 that Hunter transformed his theoretical study of architecture into practice. He became one of the founding fathers of the Berkeley Country Club (Mira Vista) and was elected their first secretary. Hunter went on to develop a preliminary routing plan for the golf course on the property and even did models of the greens. Hunter does not specifically take credit for the Mira Vista layout in his book The Links which was published in 1926.
Sometime around 1925 Hunter contacted Alister Mackenzie for help in compiling photos and illustrations for The Links. This led to a lasting working relationship between the two men. In fact, it was at Hunter’s urging that Mackenzie first traveled to California in search of new design opportunities. Together Mackenzie and Hunter would go on to change the landscape of golf in California, creating several courses that are still considered among the world’s best including Cypress Point Golf Club, Pasatiempo, and The Valley Club of Montecito.
By 1930 Hunter had essentially retired from the golf course design business. He lived in Montecito and refocused his efforts back toward politics and writing. Robert Hunter died in May of 1942. The New York Times marked his passing with an editorial that acknowledged that while poverty and injustice still remained, Hunter played a role in a "beneficent change" in society. The editorial concluded that, "His generation was the better because of the enthusiasm of his early years and wisdom of his later ones."