Sixty-five years after his graduation from Woodberry, Hunter Morin ’61 continues to credit his five years at the Forest for much of his personal and professional success.
“Woodberry has influenced everything,” he said, “because there are three things that Woodberry taught me and still teaches boys today: discipline, respect, and integrity. You get that more at Woodberry than anywhere else, I think.”
For many years, Hunter has sought to give back to Woodberry in recognition for what he gained as a student. He’s a loyal donor each year to the Amici Fund, served as a reunion committee member and class volunteer, and was a member of the On My Honor Committee that worked to promote the Walker Society. Hunter is one of more than four hundred living members of the society, which recognizes those who have included the school in their estate plans through methods such as making a bequest in their will or naming the school as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan account.
“I joined the Walker Society because we’ve got to ensure the future of Woodberry and the ideals it holds,” he said. “We want to make sure it will always be an ongoing institution.”
Hunter’s path to Woodberry was an atypical one. Born in Abilene, Texas, he largely grew up in Orange, where his father, Bob Morin, ran a furniture store, served on the town council, and was the mayor for many years. In 1956, his mother, Betty Page Morin, took a secretarial job at Woodberry — including supporting Evelyn and Rawleigh Taylor in the nascent alumni office. Her work at the school, along with a scholarship, allowed Hunter to enter Woodberry’s final class of second formers as a day student, riding to campus each day with his mother when she came to work.
At Woodberry, he was part of the soccer and golf teams, serving as a captain of the latter in his sixth-form year, and a member of the monitor board, German club, and current events club. His many pursuits as a Woodberry student led to friendships that will last a lifetime, he said.
He also noted he was a regular in Saturday demerit hall overseen by science teacher Samuel B. McLaughlin P’61, who served for many years as the school’s disciplinarian.
Sandy McLaughlin ’61 [Hunter’s classmate and son of the disciplinarian] and I were always getting into trouble, so we spent a lot of Saturdays in study hall,” Hunter recalls.
The homework he got done during that time helped him gain a spot at the University of North Carolina.
“I recognized fairly quickly at UNC how far ahead I was of my peers as a result of my Woodberry education. Those study habits and, really, the organization of your life that you learn at Woodberry, even as a day student, served me so well.”
Hunter’s younger brother, Thomas Page Morin, followed him to Woodberry, graduating in 1963. Tragically, Page was killed that following summer in a car crash, just weeks before he was to join his brother in Chapel Hill.
Hunter established, and continues to fund, the Thomas Page Morin ’63 Scholarship Fund in his brother’s memory, ensuring future Tigers have the same opportunities the two boys from Orange did.
After graduating from college, Hunter settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he still lives, and began working in the building materials industry. In 1984, he founded the GeMROI Company, which works on behalf of manufacturers to sell materials to professional builders. Less than a decade later in 1992, he founded The JIAN Group, an investment bank. His son, Campbell “Cam” Morin, is a 1986 Woodberry graduate.
“It’s amazing to think my son was in the graduating class of our current headmaster and that generation has been leading the school for many years now,” Hunter said. “The same things that impacted me as a student, I enjoyed watching in my son when he went there. Things have changed at WFS, but they also haven’t changed. Technology changes or improves; the number of students from around the world who are at WFS has grown compared to my day, but the core things have stayed the same.”
