Dr. Oliver Hunter Jr.
Dr. Oliver Hunter Jr. was born in 1935 in Kilgore Texas, some100 miles north of Houston. Growing up on his grandfather’s land, he decided to study chemistry. When Dr. Hunter graduated high school he joined the U.S. Army Medical Department. He was assigned to the chemistry lab as a medical technician at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. With this work, Hunter developed an interest in medicine, took an anatomy class, and decided to become a doctor.
Following the service, Dr. Hunter attended Texas Southern University, graduating in 1956. He then went to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, finishing in 1963. Dr. Herman Barnett had been the first African American to graduate from UTMB in 1953. While most of his time in medical school was positive, Dr. Hunter recalled hearing some discriminatory remarks from a few students, but he refused to let their racism derail his plans.
After graduation Dr. Hunter interned at Los Angles County General Hospital for one year and then returned to Houston to complete a residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine from 1964 to 1966. He later completed a fellowship in cardiology in 1972 because this subspecialty allowed him to perform more invasive procedures and to have greater control of his own practice.
While practicing medicine in Houston, Dr. Hunter joined the Houston Medical Forum. African-American physicians still faced a variety of problems and the HMF provided a supportive network. For example, when Dr. Hunter needed to find a bank willing to give him a loan to start his solo practice, Dr. Walter Minor directed him to the Bank of the Southwest which had supported black doctors in the past. Dr. Hunter received his loan.
Dr. Hunter worked in Houston for nearly 30 years and retired in 2002. His son, Dr Oliver Hunter Sr., became a doctor and works as a radiologist in Baytown.
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