70 for 70: The quiet giver

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Thursday, July 18, 2024

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70 for 70: The quiet giver

STHS Communication Department, CommDept@stph.org

Note: This article is part of 70 for 70, a weekly series of history posts counting down to St. Tammany Health System’s 70th anniversary on Dec. 1, 2024. Today we offer installment No. 50: The quiet giver.

A portrait of Dr. Patrick Hunter, hanging in the Radiology Hallway at St. Tammany Health System's flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital. (STHS photo)

Football is serious business in South Louisiana. Consequently, it takes a special person – one who has forged a special bond with the community – to get a local high school football stadium named in their honor.

Local surgeon Dr. Patrick Hunter was just such a person, which is why his name graces the stadium at St. Paul’s School in Covington.

It might be the most conspicuous local memorial to Dr. Hunter, but it’s not the only one.   

As it turns out, Dr. Hunter – who at the time of his death in 1986 was a member of the St. Tammany Parish Hospital Board of Commissioners – is among five people whose contributions to the hospital are immortalized in a series of portraits hanging in its Radiology Hallway.  

As part of our ongoing 70 for 70 history project, we’ve previously spotlighted the portraits of Dr. H.E. Gautreaux, Dr. Thomas James Healey and Dr. Jacob Kety.

Today, it’s Dr. Hunter’s turn.

Installment No. 50: The quiet giver

Today’s artifact: A portrait of Dr. Patrick R. Hunter hanging in the Radiology Hallway at St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington.

Why it is significant: Like the other men on St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s wall of honor, surgeon Dr. Patrick Hunter was a giving man, although he often did his giving quietly.

“Dr. Hunter used to give us five scholarships a year,” said Brother Jeffrey Calligan, former principal of St. Paul’s, in a 2015 interview with New Orleans’ WGNO-TV. “He would choose kids from the public system who were poor, and the kids never knew, nor did the family. We would take them. It was wonderful.”

It was part of a long, close relationship Hunter had with St. Paul’s School, where he served for 21 years as the official physician for the football team, on which six of his eight children played over the years.

He’s also the reason the Wolves play at Hunter Stadium, which was named after him. 

A graduate of the LSU School of Medicine, he completed his surgical residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans before briefly going into private practice in Greenville, Mississippi. He moved to St. Tammany Parish around 1966.

In late 1984, Hunter was named a member of St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s Board of Commissioners, where he served until his death in July 1986 of an apparent heart attack. He was 57 years old.

His generosity would be commemorated in the portrait hanging at the hospital, signed simply “Gautier” and accompanied by an inscription reading:

“Commissioned by the St. Tammany Parish Hospital medical staff to honor Dr. Hunter’s contribution to his patients, his profession and to the hospital.”

Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.

Next week Installment No. 51: First and foremost

Last week – Installment No. 49: The first volunteers

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