[5] Richard Hunter was born in Washington, D.C., on October 25, 1909, and lived his entire life in northern Virginia.
He graduated from the former McKinley Technical High School in Washington, DC in 1927 and later that summer took the US Civil Service exam.
In 1946, after WW II work on, among other things, aimable signaling mirrors (for aircraft survival kits, the previous ones had no way for the user to see where the flash was going, his design was included in the Apollo Moon landing survival kits) and aerial flares, he left the Bureau to join Gardner Laboratories where he had previously worked part-time, after hours designing many commercial instruments for the measurement of color and appearance.
HunterLab’s beginnings were very modest – just Richard and 2 technicians working in four rooms on the second floor of his boyhood home (which was next door to his house) in the woods in what is now McLean, VA. Several months later his wife, Elizabeth, joined the company to take care of administration and finance (while the family German Shepherd slept on the front porch).
Over the years he designed instruments to help USDA score tomato puree for Grade A rating, a citrus colorimeter for grading frozen orange juice for the Florida Citrus Commission, gloss meters, a distinctness of image meter, an on-line colorimeter, and many other color and appearance measuring instruments.
The most successful was the 25th development project, undertaken in 1957 for the Procter & Gamble Company who didn't want the Crisco they were measuring to melt and run into the instrument as was happening with their then current unit.
When P&G ordered their 26 units, HunterLab added manufacturing to its consulting, testing and education mission and this stimulated growth over the following years.
He received the first of the 16 patents bearing his name in January 1935 (then representing Gardner Laboratory) for a "Gloss Measuring Device".
Today HunterLab, a 100% Employee Owned company, continues his legacy of satisfying the customer while developing new technologies to successfully solve emerging color and appearance problems.