Kathryn Motz Hunter

It's difficult to categorize Kathryn Motz Hunter. She is a patron of the arts, a business woman, and a politically active citizen.

Hunter was born into the Akron business community. Her father, Clarence E. Motz, an attorney, bought into the Valley Savings Bank in 1927. Before his death, her husband, John B. Hunter, ran the bank and a companion business, First Akron Corp.

While her husband ran the Motz "family business," Kathryn Hunter was busy starting her own. Hunter owned and operated two neighborhood weeklies, the Falls News (now owned by Record Publishing) and the Hudson Times, for 18 years.

Hunter also went into the "family business." She is now president of First Akron and chair of the board of Valley Savings. In 2002, she was named "Business Woman of the Year" by Inside Business. In 1998, she was the first woman to receive the "Sales and Marketing Executive of the Year Award" from the SME Association.

But that's only part of Hunter's story. She is also a patron of the arts. She serves on the board of trustees of the Ohio Ballet and the advisory board of WKSU. She is also a philanthropist, working through the Akron Community Foundation as a board member.

Most recently, she turned her attention to the issue of school funding. She worked on the unsuccessful campaign for Issue 12, a sales tax to be used for Summit County schools. She also served on The University of Akron's Board of Trustees during the 1990s when that school's first woman president was let go.

Hunter lives in Silver Lake.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

--Kathleen L Endres

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