M. David Hunter
M. David Hunter – Iota Alpha Chapter – University of Texas, Austin, 1980
Dave was born in Washington DC in 1958, the second of four boys. The family eventually settled in Northern California. Dave’s father and grandfather both attended the University of Texas so it was an obvious choice for him. Dave’s brother Rip joined Zeta Psi during Dave’s sophomore year and ended up talking to Dave about starting a Zeta Psi chapter at Texas. Rip actually transfer to Texas for a semester and, along with Dave’s good friends Keith Cassell and Hank Buddrus, the four of them started the Iota Alpha Chapter, which received a charter in March of 1979. Dave served the chapter as President, Vice President, and Rush Chairman.
Dave majored in civil engineering and received a degree in 1980. Along the way he met Sally Richards, whom he married in 1981. Dave served four years as a Civil Engineering Officers in the United States Air Force and then five more years as a civil engineer with a private firm and then the State of Texas. In 1990 Dave left engineering to join his brothers Rip and Rich (Rich started the UC Davis chapter of Zeta Psi in 1983) in a student group travel company that they ran for 15 years before first merging with a competitor and eventually selling the combined company.
Dave remained very active in Zeta Psi after graduation. Dave began an almost unbroken convention attendance streak in 1980, has served continuously on the local alumni association – Zeta Psi of Texas, and was elected to the Zeta Psi Educational Foundation Board of Trustees in 1993. Dave eventually served in every officer of both the foundation and the fraternity, culminating with his service as Phi Alpha CXXX from August 2005 to August 2006.
In 2006, Dave was appointed as the executive director of Zeta Psi, a position he served in for ten years. During his tenure, Dave and his staff expanded the fraternity from 40 chapters with 1200 undergraduate members and under 500 annual initiates to 50 chapters with over 2200 members and nearly 1000 initiates. Zeta Psi also grew from four chapters in Canada with less than 100 undergraduate members to twelve chapters with over 300 members. Dave also lead the overseas expansion to the University of Oxford in 2008 and to Trinity College Dublin in 2012.
Dave is now retired in Austin, Texas where he lives with his wife Sally. Their son David (IA ’08) is a neurologist in Houston, Texas and daughter Sarah teaches in Austin. The greater Hunter family boasts six Zetes with Rip (I ’80), Dave (IA ’80), Rich (Iota Delta ’83), Tom (Iota Delta ’90), Dave’s son David (IA ’08), and Rich’s son Robert (founder Iota Nu ‘16).
