When Jack Hunt arrived at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute in 1960, the enterprise was little more than rented Miami classrooms, with more debt than forward momentum. Twenty years later, the university stood as the world’s premier aviation and aerospace university, a transformation powered by Hunt’s relentless will.
A Navy airship pilot in World War II and Korea, Hunt logged thousands of hours commanding lighter-than-air craft before setting two world records in 1957. His 9,448-mile nonstop Atlantic flight earned him the Harmon International Trophy from President Eisenhower and the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Flying Cross. Yet his greatest flight was still ahead: piloting Embry-Riddle itself.
Named president in 1963, Hunt was a commander with no academic pedigree but a soaring sense of purpose. He envisioned “the Embry-Riddle University of the Air” and fought — fiercely — to make it real. He moved the school from Miami to Daytona Beach, consolidated operations and pursued accreditation with unyielding drive. By 1968, Embry-Riddle had become America’s only fully accredited aviation university.
Hunt “built buildings faster than he could raise money for them,” one colleague said. To some he was autocratic; to others, inspiring. Former Board of Trustees Chair Brig. Gen. William Spruance put it best: “As an educator, Hunt has always been for the students. The people around him are his students. I learned a helluva lot more from Jack Hunt than I did at Princeton.”
Not everyone shared Hunt’s faith in the move to Daytona Beach — until they met him. Former Trustee Jay Adams recalled, “If you just talked to Jack Hunt, you got caught up in his enthusiasm. Aviation and education were both passions of Jack’s. He lived, breathed and dreamed Embry-Riddle.”
That enthusiasm proved contagious. The relocation succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, giving the fledgling university the room and runway it needed to grow. Hunt expanded programs and campuses from Daytona Beach to Prescott and created one of the nation’s first repayable educational assistance programs so aspiring aviators wouldn’t be grounded by their financial circumstances.
When Daytona Beach named its airport terminal in his honor, Hunt reminded the crowd: “Embry-Riddle doesn’t belong to me or to the Board of Trustees. It belongs to everybody in the United States — and that’s a big responsibility. I challenge you to make sure this university not only retains its reputation but improves it.”
Challenge accepted.