Delbert Earl Hunt

Delbert (Del) Earl Hunt, age 87, of Ogallala, passed away, Friday, March 27, 2020 at the Golden Ours Convalescent Home in Grant, NE.  
 
Delbert was born May 1, 1932 in Lincoln, NE to Vernard and Arvilla (Nestle) Hunt. 

Delbert received his early education at Lincoln, Nebraska, graduating from Lincoln High School in the spring of 1951. After high school, he entered the University of Nebraska, enrolling in the Engineering curriculum, but ran out of money by Christmas time. He still earned a one hour credit for "Engineering 1". Next step was a request to the Naval Reserves to call him up for active duty, but not right away, to allow his sorting out of the next step and found employment at Capital Bridge and Steel. Here, he was employed to make steel-calverts by a two man crew on the night shift of which he was one man of the crew and supervised the operation.

Delbert had joined the Naval Reserves earlier on January 22, 1951 and had two weeks of training in the summer of "51 and earned his first "stripe", which cut his basic training time for his next trip to seven weeks. The Naval Reserves called him up to active duty on September 2, 1952 to report to Training Station, North of Chicago. There it was determined what he was qualified for, which directed him to Treasure Island, CA for a daily, 39 weeks of electronic repair.

During his time on the San Francisco Bay, he joined the base Wrestling Team, a sport that he excelled in at Lincoln High School, having earned second place at Omaha North invitational in 1950, in a sport initially started at LHS in his first high school year. In the 12th Naval District wrestling competition, Del won the "1953 Welter Weight Champ" trophy.

At the end of schooling, Del was assigned to the Destroyer USS O'Bannon, it's home port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Visitation to most all of the western pacific was made, with Delbert seeing Sasebo, Yokosuka, Nagasaki, and Okinawa, Japan; Hong Kong, China; Korea; Formosa; Phillipine Islands; Sidney and Melbourne, Australia; Wellington, New Zealand; Wake Island and Midway Island.

After two years serving on O'Bannon, received a full discharge from the USNR, within a month though, re-enlisted in USNR to teach electronics to reserve training base in Lincoln, nine years total eventually served in Naval Reserves. Back home, took only a day to find work at Otis Elevator as an elevator's mechanic assistant, with electronic training in navy sealing job. But, turned down employment after several months to return to Engineering School at UNL. He attended UNL from January 1956 until January 1960.

Del was united in marriage to Rose Marie Orosco in June, 1958 in Lincoln. At the end of schooling, he was offered engineering employment by RCA Government Services, with offer eventually found to be made to only three of some five hundred applicants. After six months of training, his first job was with Norad in Syracuse, NY. Rose and Del had two boys, Pat and Rick born in Syracuse. Rose preceded him in death in March of 1962. He returned to Nebraska with the boys to find employment at TRW in Ogallala. 

In 1965 he was married to Eva Galaviz. Together they had children, Mark, Debra and Jody. In 1985 the marriage ended.

On August 28, 1987 he was married to Audrey Cockerill.

Delbert was Scout Master for Scout Troop 258 for 20 years. On October 28, 1972, the Ogallala Optimist awarded Delbert, "Friend of the Boy" plaque. He was awarded three US patents in 1975, 1976, and 1980 for his work on capacitors.

His hobbies included electric cars, renewable energy, camping, dancing, traveling, reading, and watching TV. 

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Rose Marie Orosco; his parents; Foster Son Richard Beesely; Sister-in-law Karen Hunt; and Mother-in-law Lucille Lovenburg.

Delbert is survived by his wife; 5 children; Patrick Hunt, of Clearwater, FL; Richard (Barb) Hunt, of Elephant Butte, NM; Mark Hunt; Jody Hunt, both of Albuquerque, NM; Debra Hunt (Ken McCallum), of Gilbert, AZ; and 5 step-children; Lynda (John) Beard, of Ogallala; Michael Cockerill, of Golden, CO; Janet (Mark) Kipple, of Ogallala, NE; Kelly Cockerill, of Grand Junction, CO; (Widow of  Foster Son, Richard) Pam Beesley, of Arvada, CO; 2 brothers; Lyle (Rosemary) Hunt, of Lincoln; Wayne (Teresa) Hunt, of Crete, NE; 1 sister, Arlene Olson, of Lincoln, CA; 10 grandchildren; Evan (Lauren) Hunt; Taylor (Liz) Hunt, both of Omaha, NE: Shawn Beard, of Ogallala; Tanya (Daryl) Webster, of Apex, South Carolina; Wade (Lynda) Beard, of Ohiowa, NE; Brandy (David) Soto, of Omaha, NE; Zach (Alex) Kipple, of San Antonio, TX; Jennie (Chris) Powers, of Conifer, CO; Charlotte Cockerill, of Grand Junction, CO; Rick (Joylene) Beesley of Gunnison, CO and 24 great-grandchildren. 

A memorial is established in his memory to Golden Ours Convalescent Home in Grant
 
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Memorial Services are pending at the Draucker Funeral Home in Ogallala and will be scheduled at a later date this spring due to the recent Health Concerns.

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