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University of Maine professor Constance Hunting passed away early Wednesday morning after suffering a stroke late last Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning, according to Margo Lukens, chair of the English department.
Hunting was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor after being discovered unconscious in her home early Thursday. The English department received the news from Hunting’s son and daughter, Sam and Miranda Hunting.
“I was saddened to hear of professor Hunting’s death,” said UMaine President Robert Kennedy. “Her creativity was a gift to our community, and her positive influence on countless students is a wonderful legacy. My thoughts go out to her family and friends at this difficult time.”
Hunting was a professor at UMaine for almost 40 years since moving to Orono in 1968. She became a professor in 1995 and was a full-time professor of creative writing up until her death.
Originally from Rhode Island, Hunting was born in 1925. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from Brown University in 1945, and later attended Duke University and Purdue University as well.
She was named poet laureate of Indiana before coming to UMaine and was a member of the National Poetry Foundation Board.
Described as a pianist, a professional poet and a supporter of Maine writers, in 1971 she founded her own press, Puckerbrush Press, following the publication of her first book, “After the Stravinsky Concert and Other Poems” in 1969.
Seven years later, Hunting began publishing a biannual literary magazine, Puckerbrush Reviews, printing the works of up and coming writers.
Hunting combined her passion for words, music and the world around her in her writing. When she came to Maine, she embraced and identified with the local culture and set out to make herself a Maine writer, said Burton Hatlen, professor of English and director of the National Poetry Foundation.
In the December ’01-January ’02 edition of UMaine Today, Hunting said in an interview:
“I like to look and listen,” said Hunting of her love of language. “Place and landscape are important to me, just as Maine is in my work. I remember standing for 15 minutes beside a stream in autumn and just watching the leaves. What a luxury – the color, motion and shapes.”
In her 1999 publication “Natural Things: Collected Poems,” her writing is described as ranging from “imagist lyrics to a verse novella; and in the extended meditative poems of her recent years, Hunting created a mode-witty, playful, but probingly reflective-that is distinctively her own.”
Throughout her years of teaching, Hunting always left a lasting impression on her students; her passion for literature was contagious.
“As a teacher, she was an extraordinarily effective professor, and while I was department chair she regularly received the best student evaluations in the department,” said Hatlen. “She had a powerful effect on students and that continued until the end of her life; a very full and remarkably productive life.”
Arrangements for Hunting’s current classes, ENG 205, 305 and 405, are being made.
Hunting is survived by her two children. Her husband, Robert, was chair of the English department for eight years when they first came to UMaine. He passed away several years ago.
No services are being held, according to the Brookings-Smith Funeral Home.
