Hunter Ingalls ’55

Born again to live

born again to die,

born again to live on earth

springing spirit to the sky!   — H.I.

Hunter Ingalls, a poet, writer, teacher, and public servant, died suddenly from a heart attack May 27, 2008. Hunter and Mary, his wife of 34 years, lived in Bushland, Texas, near Amarillo.

Born in New York City, Hunter spent his childhood in numerous cities on his way to Princeton, where he graduated with honors and earned the University’s top prizes in poetry and creative writing. Following military service he earned a Ph.D. in art history at Columbia, launching a teaching career that took him from Columbia to Austin, Amarillo, Anchorage, and Harrisonburg, Va.

In 1988 he was instrumental in founding Amarillo’s first co-op gallery, The Lost Circus. For more than 10 years Hunter wrote “Art Beat,” a weekly column on visual arts for The Amarillo Globe News . He and some friends started Final Friday, a monthly gathering of musicians, poets, and storytellers. Hunter served on the boards of public radio, the YMCA, Friends of the Library, the Unitarian Fellowship, and others. For 20 years, he served as a Democratic precinct election judge.