It was an overly packed Elmslie Memorial United Church with family, friends, and business associates, who came there last Saturday 1st December, to honour Caymanian Arthur B. Hunter.

The Officiating Minister was the Rt. Rev. L. Christopher Mason.

EULOGY OF ARTHUR B. HUNTER

Arthur B. Hunter, OBE, who passed away unexpectedly on 21st November, was born in Bodden Town on 6th October 1937, the son of the late Clifton A. and Gwyneth E. Hunter.

Mr. Hunter received his primary education at the Bodden Town Primary School and secondary education at Knox College in Jamaica. He was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Jamaica and the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in July 1960 and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England in January 1967. Returning to the Cayman Islands in July 1960 Mr. Hunter, who was then the first academically qualified Caymanian Lawyer, was appointed as Clerk of the Court and Coroner. At that time he led the majority of criminal prosecutions on behalf of the Crown and, as there was then no Attorney General in the Islands, he advised the Government on many legal issues. Following enactment of the Companies Law in 1960, Mr. Hunter was also appointed as the first Registrar of Companies for the Cayman Islands and as such established the local Companies Register.

Mr. Hunter resigned from the Public Service in1965 and in partnership with his father, the late Clifton A. Hunter, established the legal firm of Hunter & Hunter (now Appleby). Subsequently, they also formed the company management company known as Huntlaw Corporate Services Ltd. (now Estera Trust (Cayman) Ltd.) He retired as Chairman of the latter and Senior Partner of the firm in June 1997 after 37 years of active practice as a lawyer. Mr. Hunter was instrumental in the drafting of the Legal Practitioners Law, 1969 as well as the charter documents of the Cayman Islands Law Society of which he was Founder/President.

In the local business arena Mr. Hunter was a founding shareholder of the Cayman National Group. He also served as a local director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Trust Co. (C.l.) Ltd., for twenty-six years. In addition to his banking interests Mr. Hunter was also active in the insurance field and was a founding shareholder and the first Chairman of Cayman Insurance Centre Ltd. Since 1977 Mr. Hunter has served as a director of Jacques Scott Group Ltd., a major commercial entity in the Cayman Islands and has been its Chairman since 2006.

While engaging in private practice as a lawyer, Mr. Hunter remained active in local Government and civic affairs. He was a member of the Architectural Committee along with the late Dr. Roy McTaggart and Mr. Peter Bynoe, a distinguished Eastern Caribbean Architect that selected the design of the local Legislative Assembly and Courts Building in Central George Town. He served as a member (1971-76) and as Chairman (1975-76) of the Caymanian Protection Board (now Immigration Board). Among the many other posts held by him were Chairman of the Planning Appeals Tribunal (1985-86) and (1989-93) and Chairman of the Board of Cayman Airways Limited (1985-88).

For public service Mr. Hunter was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1976 and the following year was, together with his wife Karen, the official representative of the Cayman Islands at the Twentyfifth Anniversary Jubilee Celebrations in London for her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Mr. Hunter has been an active member of many local civic organizations most notably the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman of which he is a Past President. He has also served as a District Governor of that organisation (1982-83) with administrative responsibility for 34 Clubs in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, he Virgin Islands and St. Marten, the first Caymanian to have held that honour.

Since his retirement in 1997 Mr. Hunter has served as a director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (2001-02) and was one of the Commissioners appointed in May 2001 to review the 1972 Constitution of the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Hunter’s passion has been the advancement of Caymanians in the legal profession of the Cayman Islands.

The senior partners of several of the local law firms such as Mr. David Ritch of Ritch & Conolly, Mrs. Sherri Bodden Cowan of Bodden & Bodden and Mrs. Sophia Harris of Solomon Harris had their first taste of the local private practice as associates of his former firm, Hunter & Hunter. Upon his retirement in 1997 Mr. Hunter established the Clifton Hunter Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of his late father and a number of Caymanians have been the recipients of scholarships financed by that fund to further their legal education.

A family man, Mr. Hunter and his wife of 55 years, Karen have two children and four grandchildren. His son, Bryan, has gone on to follow in his footsteps as a partner and now managing partner of Appleby. His daughter, Desiree Brodhurst also has a law degree and resides in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

Left to mourn his passing are his wife Karen, daughter Desiree, son-in-law Robin, son Bryan, daughter-in-law Jennifer, grandchildren Rory, Gabriella, Cory and Daniel and brother George Hunter and his family.

END

The Interment was the Spotts Cementery.