IN MEMORIAM: Charlene Hunt

IN MEMORIAM: Charlene "Char" Hunt

Charlene Hunt, a former Labor and Industries activist and member of Local 443 in Tumwater who helped overturn the ban on state employee raffles to raise money for charities, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. She was 68.

Char Hunt was a workers’ compensation adjudicator at L&I in 2007 when she and other L&I members culminated three years of hard work on the raffle bill.

They’d been frustrated by state ethics opinions that vetoed their worksite fundraising for charities. She was part of the Federation team on hand when then-Gov. Christine Gregoire signed House Bill 1599 into law on May 14, 2007.

Her husband of 45 years, Rep. (now Sen.) Sam Hunt, sponsored HB 1599.

Besides her work for charities, Char Hunt was active in the Thurston County Democrats hosting fundraising dinners and so much more.

“She was just as political as I am,” Sam Hunt told The Olympian today (Nov. 3). “She just didn’t run for office.”

Gov. Jay Inslee spoke for all of us Tuesday when he said, “Today we lost a dear friend.”

Services will be at St. Michael Catholic Church in Olympia at a time a date to be determined, Sen. Hunt told The Olympian.

Read more on her amazing life at: http://www.theolympian.com/news/politics-government/article182412116.html