Walt Hundley Playfield Dedication

The sun always shines on the righteous. That’s what founding EW Board member, Manvel Schauffler, used to say. The sun came out on Saturday, September 18 for the dedication of the Walt Hundley Playfield in honor of Evan Hundley’s father. The event was well attended by friends, family and Explorer West community members (staff, board and faculty). The park, formerly known as the High Point Playfield is located at 35th Ave. SW and SW Holly just shy of the city’s highest elevation, 520 feet. The Explorer West tennis team holds practice at this newly renamed park.

Walt Hundley, served the city of Seattle for many years in a number of roles including City Director of the office of Budget and Management (1974-1977) and Seattle’s first African-American Parks Superintendant (1977-1988). Former mayors Wes Uhlman (1969-1978) and Charley Royer (1978-1990) spoke passionately about Hundley’s unflappable dedication to doing the right thing for the people of Seattle and reflected that the choice of this park to be Walt Hundley’s namesake was ideal: full of activity and looking out over the city he loved. The celebration concluded with Evan reading a Maya Angelou poem, When Great Trees Fall. You can read more about Walt Hundley’s life at http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3173.

The Explorer West community congratulates our Head of School for this recognition of his father’s legacy in Seattle city government.