DeLand restaurant founder Paul Hunter dies at 89

Downtown landmark celebrates 60th year on Feb. 5

By Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jan 7, 2009 - 9:38:47am

Many DeLand-area residents remember restaurateur Paul Hunter as a dapper, good-natured man who wore a trademark string tie.

They chatted with him many times at his family's Hunter's Restaurant, which has been a part of West Volusia lives for six decades. The restaurant will celebrate its 60th anniversary Feb. 5.

Fewer know of Paul Hunter's years as a home-builder, refrigeration mechanic, service-station owner and accomplished guitarist.

His versatile life ended Jan. 4, when he died at the age of 89.

Friends and family remembered him for his remarkable intelligence and his astonishing diversity.

At one time during the 1950s, Paul Hunter was building homes, running the restaurant, and regularly playing guitar with his band in DeLand-area nightspots. Even that wasn't enough. He opened a small radio- and television-repair shop.

"He was probably the smartest man I've ever known in my life," said his sister Nancy Hunter, who has owned the family's landmark Downtown DeLand restaurant for the past decade. "He could do anything; he could fix anything."

His oldest son, Larry Hunter, who lives "within shouting distance" of his mother and much of the rest of the family in Pierson, ticked off the jobs his father had held: dairy farmer, theater manager, building contractor, service-station owner, real-estate worker and automobile mechanic.

"He built probably 60 or 70 homes in the area," Larry Hunter recalled.

Most of them sold for under $10,000, he said. "In those days, a $12,000 home was a fancy home," he said.

A few years back, Larry Hunter noticed one of the houses built by his father had sold for $150,000.

"Here it was, a 50-year-old home that he had probably sold for $9,500," he said with a chuckle.

Reared in North Carolina, Paul Hunter graduated from high school at the age of 16; he was his class valedictorian.

He served in the U.S. Army, stationed just a few miles from Pearl Harbor, but was discharged in 1940, before the infamous Japanese attack there.

After living for a time in Vermont, Hunter followed his parents to Florida, where he managed a theater in Daytona Beach and owned and operated Paul's Sinclair Station on the corner of Ohio Avenue and Woodland Boulevard.

There he met the woman he would marry: Theda Harper, whose family had deep roots in Northwest Volusia. She was working then as secretary to Jess Mathas, Volusia County's Clerk of Courts. Paul and Theda were married 60 years, and had four children.

In 1949, a year after their marriage, Paul Hunter's parents bought a restaurant on North Woodland Boulevard. Paul worked there, and he took it over when his parents returned to North Carolina.

Paul's distinct string tie — or bow tie — and personable manner impressed many.

DeLandite Lee Gartside is a Hunter's regular.

"I've been going in and out of there since 1963," Gartside said.

He has fond memories of Paul Hunter.

"He was a wonderful man," Gartside said, "always friendly, always helpful, always enjoyed a nice joke."

Gartside is known for always being ready to tell a joke. He also mentioned Paul Hunter's ability to fix almost anything.

"Even if he didn't do it, he would tell you how to do it," Gartside said. "He enjoyed people."

"He was a good talker," recalled former hostess Shirley Burchfield, who took her first paying job at Hunter's Restaurant at the age of 68, about 12 years ago, after a career of homemaking and rearing children.

He was a good guitarist, too.

"I've still got his old Fender guitar that he left me," Larry Hunter said.

Paul's brother Bill Hunter, who lives in Orange City, played drums. In the 1950s, their band filled the dance floor regularly at the DeLand Moose Lodge and the Bamboo Club on South Woodland Boulevard.

When Paul and Theda's children got older and the restaurant business took more of his time, Paul Hunter gave up the band, but it left an impression on his children.

Larry Hunter recalled listening to rehearsals as a child.

"I can still recall sneaking down the hall late at night," he said. "I was probably 5 or 6 years old. I could hear them practicing in the living room, and I'd see if I could get a peek without getting caught."

In the 1970s, when Paul Hunter was in his 50s, he enrolled at Daytona Beach Community College (now Daytona State College) to study refrigeration. He graduated with honors, and became a crackerjack refrigeration mechanic, his son said. He was depended on, not only by his sister, who was running Hunter's Restaurant, but by many in Northwest Volusia's fern industry, where giant coolers keep plants critically fresh until they go to market.

"He was well into his 80s, and people would call him and say, 'Paul, can you fix this?'" Larry Hunter said. "We told him, 'Dad, you've got to stop saying yes.'"

It was a while before he stopped. Nancy Hunter said her brother kept the coolers and air conditioners running at Hunter's until just a few years ago.

"He saw it as a challenge," his son said.

Paul Hunter was a member of First Baptist Church of DeLand and twice served as Master of St. Johns Masonic Lodge No. 37, F&AM.

In addition to Theda, Larry, Nancy and Bill, Paul Hunter is survived by another son, Harry of Pierson; two daughters, Cheryl Bates of Barberville and Glenda McDaniel of Pierson; two other sisters, June Jones of DeLand and Carolyn Skeen of Statesville, N.C.; grandchildren Todd Gemeinhardt, Scott Gemeinhardt, Wade Hunter, Martin Bates, Austin Hunter and Kirby Hunter; and stepgrandchildren Marlon Bates, Roy McDaniel and Randi McDaniel.

Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, at Allen-Summerhill Funeral Home in DeLand. There will be a graveside service for family only.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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