Robert & Virginia Hunn's History with the Delaware Valley Branch
by Siān Frick
March 2001
It's hard to imagine the Branch without our dear friends Robert and Virginia Hunn. At 88 years old (Virginia) and 82 years old (Robert) and still dancing and teaching, they are idols to many of us, who hope we can follow their example!
Virginia grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey, obtained her Bachelor's Degree in History at Wheaton College, Illinois, and married Bill Richie, a minister. From 1935 to 1937 they were in Beirut, Lebanon, as high school teachers in a US-supported Christian mission school. Their son, Daniel, was born there, and their daughter, Merrily, was born some years later when they were living in the Delaware Valley
Robert grew up in Washington, DC, obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics at Haverford, then earned a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. In 1941 he became an industrial engineer at DuPont, then with the advent of computers became a computer expert and troubleshooter there for 23 years, before taking early retirement in 1977.
Virginia had begun dancing in 1952, when several families got together to do English country dances, and later Scottish country dances. She and Robert eventually met at dances at Arden Folk Gild, Delaware, became Scottish dance partners, and then married in 1961 (a second marriage for each). Robert had attended a workshop at Arden by Bobby Watson from Scotland, and, he says, was "bit" by the music. Typically, Robert insisted on learning how to dance properly, and he and Virginia went to the RSCDS Summer School at St. Andrews for the first of 25 annual trips. Virginia is the only member of that original group, the forerunner of the Delaware Valley Branch, still dancing with us.
Robert gained his Preliminary Teaching Certificate at St. Andrew's in 1962, and his Full Certificate in Washington, DC in 1965, tutored by Alfred Hurd and with Miss Milligan herself as the examiner. Since then, we in the Branch have all benefited from Robert's in-depth knowledge of Scottish dancing and other aspects of Scotland. He was the Branch Secretary for many years and led the Branch demonstration team on which he and Virginia danced for 25 years. Robert also learned and taught Highland dancing to adults in our Branch. Virginia used to do Ladies' step dancing, and was the Branch Librarian until recently.
After they married, Virginia and Robert lived in Rotherham Mill House on Old Harmony Road in Newark, Delaware, built in 1740, where they spent 17 years restoring it to its original Queen Anne condition. When Robert retired, they moved to Scotland in March, 1978, where they lived for three years in Milnathorpe, 25 miles north of Edinburgh, in a former manse of the Church of Scotland built in 1788. Of course, they took full advantage of the many opportunities to go Scottish country dancing, and Robert even did some teaching ("teaching the Scots to do their own dances").
When they returned to the U.S. in August, 1981, Robert and Virginia built a new house in North Wilmington in the middle of trees, a Lindal cedar chalet-style house on which Robert did much of the carpentry. Many of us in the Branch have enjoyed dancing at this beautiful house, all wood inside and out, with its cathedral-ceilinged great room (designed to be big enough for two sets, of course), huge windows, and minstrel gallery where Robert's self-built harpsichord used to be played by Bill Gatens. (They do have to watch out for woodpeckers and carpenter bees, however... ) Virginia and Robert also have friends over to teach them English and Scottish country dances, and we in the Branch class in Newark are fortunate that they dance with us regularly.