Our People

The Hunt Family

Family Summary

Roy A. Hunt was the only child of Captain Alfred Epher Hunt and Maria Tyler McQuesten Hunt.  Alfred was a co-founder of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company which later became known as the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).  As one of Pittsburgh’s prominent industrialists, Alfred influenced the start of the movement to purify the city’s water supply.  He also served on the commission to remedy the city’s smoke nuisance in the late 1800s.

Roy and his wife, Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, continued that philanthropic spirit throughout their lives.  Roy established the Alcoa Foundation in 1952, one of the few endowed corporate foundations in the U.S.  In 1961, the couple established the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University to continue Rachel’s research and collections of botanical history and art.

In 1951, Roy summarized his personal philosophy of life:

“In my Credo there are 5 allegiances that we have. I put them in order of their importance.

1. To Almighty God: broadest Mainstay of spiritual destiny.
2. To our Country: no need to elaborate this one.
3. To one’s self, including one’s family.
4. To the organization for which you work – and also in which you have an interest.
5. To charitable, civic, and community organizations, which, as one grows older, take more and more time.

To all of you I commend these five. They constitute my own philosophy.”

Rachel and Roy had four sons, all of whom served as the Roy A. Hunt Foundation’s initial trustees:

• Roy A. Hunt, Jr. was a banker at Mellon Bank where he was Vice President of Community Banking until his death in 1981.
• Alfred M. Hunt was a metallurgist who was elected to the Board of Directors of Alcoa in 1949 and served as Vice President and Secretary of the company until his death in 1984.
• Torrence M. Hunt spent his entire career at Alcoa before retiring as Vice President in 1982.  He died in 2004.
• Richard M. Hunt was a Harvard faculty member for 42 years and its University Marshal for 20 years before retiring in 2002. He died in 2020.