REV. JIM HUNTER, Huntsville, Ala., died March 29 following an extended illness. Remember his wife Jean and his son Tim.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, May 2003, page 23]

JIM HUNTER
September 27, 933-March 29, 2003

Jim Hunter's unassuming and candid demeanor endeared him to people in every congregation and presbytery where he served. It was impossible to spend much time with Jim and not know how he felt about his Savior, the Church, and his mission. Jesus Christ was his Savior. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was his extended family, and his mission was to provide everyone he met with an opportunity to commit their lives to Christ as he had. In a career which spanned nearly fifty years before his health made him retire, Jim pastored congregations in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. He served on the staff for more summer camps for young people than anyone except him and those who participated in them can remember. He was a responsible Presbyter, serving on Committees on the Ministry and other Presbyterial agencies, providing leadership in countless ways. He was a faithful husband to Jean Cox Hunter, who became Jim's primary caregiver toward the end of his life, and father to Tim and late Kyle Hunter.

Kyle's untimely death in 1999 broke Jim's heart, as it would any parent's. But through the ordeal of Kyle's lengthy illness and death, Jean's ongoing battle with arthritis, and then Jim's own battle with cancer, Jim found strength and support in God's constant presence with him and in the community of faith. In retirement, Jim and his family became part of the family of Christ Church in Monrovia, the newest congregation in Robert Donnell Presbytery. Much of the funding for the start-up of Christ Church came from the proceeds of the sale of the Good Shepherd Church in Huntsville, of which Jim was the final pastor. Jim said several times that he felt that the ministry of the Good Shepherd Church had been resurrected and would continue in Christ Church. He expressed appreciation, but not surprise, for the way the Christ Church congregation accepted and cared for him and his family.

In 1999, Robert Donnell Presbytery joined the whole Cumberland Presbyterian Church in celebrating the Year of the Bible. Jim joined us in pledging to read the Bible through in that year. He got ahead of the rest of us in his reading and had read the Bible through at least three times by the time we all finished up in December. While the rest of us patted ourselves on the back for our achievement, Jim decided he wasn't finished, and began to read again. And then again. Just before his death, he reported that he had read the Bible through twenty-seven times before illness prevented his reading more. He talked many times about what a pleasure it was to read the Scripture to see what it had to say instead of in preparation for a sermon that had to be ready by Sunday.

Everyone who knew Jim knew his distinctive pattern of prayer. "Lord, this is Jim," threw more than a few of us when we heard it first. But we came to understand that relationship which sustained him and which allowed him to converse with God on such an intimate level.

The Service of Witness to the Resurrection in celebration of Jim's life and witness was held at Christ Church on April 1. The Revs. Ron Bynum, Wendell Trotter, and Bob Phelps led the service in which ministers from several presbyteries served as honorary pallbearers and friends and family celebrated and grieved together. Burial followed at Valhalla Memorial Garden in Huntsville.

Thanks be to God for the life and witness of our friend and brother, Jim Hunter.
                                                                                         --Bob Phelps

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, June 2003, page 24]