Meet the Hunts

Woody and Gayle Hunt are slowly stepping into the spotlight. Since 1987, through their Hunt Family Foundation, the Hunts have anonymously donated millions of dollars to various El Paso causes, nonprofits and institutions. Rarely did they publicize what they were doing. But in the past year or so, the Hunts have gone public with some of their most generous donations -- $10 million to Texas Tech, $7 million to UTEP and $1.2 million to the YWCA. Their reason for going public is simple, they said. "It's strategic," Woody said. "If others see what we are doing and that we are committed to El Paso, hopefully they, too, will step up and donate or help in any way they can. The endgame is to make El Paso a better place to live." And their reason for working to make El Paso a better to live is also simple. "This is home," Gayle said. "This is where I grew up. This is where our family is, and this is where we want to be." The Hunts' story - Woody Hunt is a native El Pasoan. Gayle Hunt, formerly Gayle Greve, moved with her family to El Paso when she was 6 years old. She graduated from Austin High School. He grew up in the Lower Valley, graduated from Ysleta High School at age 16 and immediately enrolled at Texas Western College, which is now the University of Texas at El Paso. It was there, in an English class, that Woody and Gayle first met. "All I remember is that she was pretty, very pretty," said Woody, a businessman and scholar who'd rather talk about economics.

Area: Westside / Coronado

Source: Sierra Providence Health Network

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Helix Garden - El Paso, Texas

Designed to communicate healing and wellness, Helix Garden is located at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso outside of the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing. The piece, created by artists Elizabeth Billings and Andrea Wasserman, is a continuous sculptural experience featuring an LED-lit double helix that spans across 150 feet, joining the Medical Education Building and Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing. It comprises tall sandblasted glass frieze and overlapping glass panels that create both public spaces for congregating and more private places for sitting and studying.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Woody & Gayle Hunt Family Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

The generous $1 million dollar gift of the Hunt family named the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The gift serves as matching funds for other major gifts. "Our major donors know that through this gift, their gift is doubled. One dollar becomes two", said Dennece Knight, Executive Director. Funds are placed in an endowment to support the Physician in Chief of El Paso Children's Hospital.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: El Paso Children's Hospital

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing

Topping off ceremony.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing

The Topping Ceremony for the Hunt School of Nursing in Central El Paso, one of 2014's major projects in the city. (UMC of El Paso)

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Hunt Family Foundation

The official Hunt Family Foundation logo

Area: Westside / Mesa Hills

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Gayle Hunt Baby Cafe Support

The Gayle Hunt Baby Cafe is supported in part by the William Hearst Foundation.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Gayle Hunt Baby Cafe

A Baby Café breastfeeding drop-in center is a place of excellence that attracts mothers of all ages and from all sectors of the community. It does this by providing breastfeeding help and support, from both skilled health professionals and other mothers, in a friendly, non-clinical, café style environment. The original Baby Café was opened in London, England, in the year 2000. Today there are 136 Baby Cafés world-wide, with 46 in the United States. The goals of the organization are: To promote the physical and psychological health of mothers and children through education and training regarding breastfeeding. To advance the general public's knowledge of the health benefits, immediate and long term, of breastfeeding. To continue education among volunteers supporting breastfeeding mothers.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

El Paso Children's Hospital

Since 1987, the Hunt Family Foundation (the "Foundation") has predominantly supported charitable organizations and initiatives that target the areas in and around El Paso County, Texas, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Otero County, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México (the "Paso del Norte" region). The Foundation also supports organizations whose programs impact the state of Texas, and the nation as a whole.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: El Paso Children's Hospital

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Reception for Dr. Jeanne Novotny

Community leaders and government officials met the founding dean of Texas Tech's Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing, Dr. Jeanne Novotny, during a reception held at the El Paso Club Feb. 4.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: El Paso, Inc.

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Hunts with Rick Perry

Mr. Woody L. Hunt, Governor Rick Perry, and Mrs. Gayle Hunt at the Retiring Regent event on November 8, 2005.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Retiring Regents

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Hunt Family Foundation Donates to UTEP - El Paso, Texas

In the single largest gift to date in The University of Texas at El Paso’s Centennial Campaign, the Hunt Family Foundation has pledged $5 million to establish the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness and support graduate programs and research.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: UTEP

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Woody & Gayle Hunt Family Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

The generous $1 million dollar gift of the Hunt family named the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The gift serves as matching funds for other major gifts. "Our major donors know that through this gift, their gift is doubled. One dollar becomes two", said Dennece Knight, Executive Director. Funds are placed in an endowment to support the Physician in Chief of El Paso Children's Hospital.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: EP Children's Hospital Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Kids Excel

Since 1987, the Hunt Family Foundation (the "Foundation") has predominantly supported charitable organizations and initiatives that target the areas in and around El Paso County, Texas, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Otero County, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México (the "Paso del Norte" region). The Foundation also supports organizations whose programs impact the state of Texas, and the nation as a whole.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Hunt Family Foundation

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Woody and Gayle Hunt

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance has announced a generous gift of $10 million from the Hunt Family Foundation to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC). The donation will be used to develop an autonomous, fully-accredited nursing school at the TTUHSC campus in El Paso. The school will be named the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing. Gayle Greve Hunt is the wife of Woody L. Hunt, chairman of the Hunt Family Foundation and CEO of the Hunt Companies, headquartered in El Paso. “On behalf of the Foundation, the Hunt family is proud to lend support to the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center by establishing this nursing school,” Woody Hunt said.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: Texas Tech

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

MCA Foundation Reception

The Medical Center of the Americas Foundation hosted a reception Nov. 21 at the El Paso Club to launch a $10-million capital campaign for its $38-million biomedical innovation center that's been named the Cardwell Collaborative. Last summer, the foundation named its first building in honor of Jack Cardwell, who has made the largest-ever donation to the non-profit. That amount has not been disclosed, but so far the foundation has raised about 70 percent of its $10-million goal.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: El Paso, Inc.

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Woody Hunt: Formula for Success

Financed by many of El Paso’s biggest names in business, a political action committee named Citizens for Prosperity threw its money and support behind two winning City Council candidates this spring. Most political action committees collect contributions from donors and give money to political candidates to spend as they wish. The Prosperity PAC took a different route from the start, deciding not to put money into candidates’ hands, but to provide consultant services and expertise on an in-kind basis to help them get elected. Businessman Woody Hunt named the PAC in 2007 and established it with investments of $500 to $1,000 from businessmen J. Robert Brown, Paul Foster, Rick Francis, Harold Hahn and Ted Houghton, all of whom have built major businesses and had abiding interests in politics and education.

Area: Central / Chihuahuita

Source: El Paso, Inc.

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Joshua Hunt and Alejandra De La Vega Foster

Even when construction on El Paso's first Triple-A stadium trudged along more than a year ago, El Paso Chihuahuas owners Joshua Hunt and Alejandra De La Vega Foster always had a collective vision for the home opener. They saw fireworks exploding, the scoreboard flashing "Chihuahuas win," and 9,000 El Pasoans leaving Southwest University Park with a smile.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: El Paso Times

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy

Josh Hunt & Family at the zoo, El Paso, TX, circa 2015

Kids and their parents got an after-hours peek inside the El Paso Zoo during Family Fun Night on Sept. 30. Activities for the whole family included two new features, the Hunt Family Desert Spring water feature and the African Star train, as well as music, dancing, jumping balloons, games, face painting, family friendly foods, kid’s drinks, beer, wine, photo opportunities and much more. The zoo opened the Africa and the America’s Plaza exhibits after hours for special looks at lions, meerkats, zebras, giraffes, gazelles and other animals.

Area: Central / South Central

Source: El Paso, Inc.

Uploaded by: Jim Murphy