CHEF’s Carolyn T. Hunt Fine Arts Fund Continues to Benefit Scholars

The late, great Carolyn T. Hunt was one of the proponents of starting the Cedar Hill ISD Education Foundation (CHEF) in the early 2000s.

Hunt, who was a fashion designer in New York City, moved to Cedar Hill with her husband, Duff, and two young children, in the early 1980s.

“She was extremely talented in the visual arts,” said Duff Hunt, who still lives in Cedar Hill. “She was such a presence in the community.”

Hunt survived Hodgkins Lymphoma in the mid 1970s, but the radiation treatment she received weakened her heart about 25 years later. She died of congestive heart failure in 2004, at age 56.

Hunt’s family and friends supported a CHEF Fine Arts Endowment in memory of Hunt, which has grown to approximately $100,000. The Hunt Funds are available to CHISD Fine Arts Educators, provided they write a grant that is accepted.

Two years ago, $15,000 was granted to the CHISD Fine Arts Department for a variety of programs from band and choir to art and elementary music.

Previous Hunt Fine Arts Grants have gone to Orchestra and Theatrical Design.

Duff recalls one of the first Hunt grants, soon after the Fund was established.

“A Plummer Elementary Fourth Grade Teacher won a photography grant in the early days of digital photography,” Duff said. “Each scholar took the camera home. They each took a photo of the most important thing in their life. And then, the school had the gallery on display.”

Hunt served as President of the Bray Elementary PTA and was the mother of two Cedar Hill High School Graduates. She was also involved in garden clubs and the city’s parks.

In her memory, Duff purchased the right to name a street in his late wife’s honor, and he also memorialized a bench at the Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center in Cedar Hill.