World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseCelia Hunter was born in Arlington, Washington, United States in 1919. She was raised a Quaker. She graduated high school in 1936. She learned to fly and graduated from a Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training class during WW2, subsequently ferrying aircraft from factories to military bases. After the war, Hunter, a fellow former WASP pilot Ginny Hill Wood, and Wood's husband started Camp Denali in Alaska, United States, which hosted tourists; they managed the camp with the environment in mind, refusing to sell bottled beverages, for example, for fear of guests littering. As she became more and more involved with Alaskan politics in the realm of conservationism, she became involved in the founding of the Alaska Conservation Society in 1960, and served as its executive secretary for 12 years. In 1964, she graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a Bachelor of Arts degree in botany. In 1972, she was nominated by US Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton to sit on the joint Federal State Land Use Planning Commission. In 1980, she and Denny Wilcher started the Alaska Conservation Foundation, serving on its Board of Trustees for 18 years. In 1991, she was given the John Muir Award by the Sierra club, followed by the Robert Marshall Award by the Wilderness Society in 1998, both of which honored her lifelong passion in conservationism. She passed away in 2001.

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Celia Hunter Timeline

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