UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT KEARNEY ALUMNI
FOREVER A LOPER
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Alumni are making an impact in their communities every single day. Please share those stories with us at lopers@unkalumni.org.
LOPER ALUMNA PROFILE
10 years, I practiced law in two private firms concentrating on civil business and professional litigation. During that time, I founded the Anchorage Association of Women Lawyers and served as the second female president of the Alaska Bar Association. In 1984, the governor appointed me as the first woman to serve on the Superior Court in Anchorage. During that time, my community activities were recognized with many awards including the Y.M.C.A. Woman of Achievement, Chamber of Commerce Athena Society, A.C.L.U. Liberty Award and Alaska Pacific Board of Trustee Emeritus.
KAREN K. (Lueck) HUNT ‘61 I came to Kearney State College when my parents moved to Kearney the summer before my junior year of college, so I eagerly transferred from Hastings College. I knew KSC had more classes and offered richer learning opportunities. When I came to KSC, I was a theater major. However, I gradually realized I probably wasn’t going to be a working actress. I decided to take several education courses to qualify for a Nebraska teaching certificate. After graduation in 1961, I was hired to teach English (speech and drama) at Columbus High School and two years later, I moved to California for similar teaching jobs. It was there that I pursed a Master of Arts in English from L.A. State College. In 1968, I decided to leave teaching and was accepted at the University of Southern California Law School, graduating in 1973.
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In 1988, I began a 31-year teaching career at the National Judicial College. I traveled to many different states and countries teaching a wide range of subjects to judges, concentrating on judicial writing. I also returned to Kearney as a mentor and guest speaker for The Gold Torch Society, a mentoring program for UNK alumnae and undergraduate women. After I retired in 2000 I continued my community involvement, and was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2015 for community service and public education. Looking back, I owe a lot of my success to KSC because it started me on the path of my greatest achievement — mastering and honing the ability to communicate clearly and to explain complicated ideas and concepts so others can use them for their own achievements.
Meanwhile, my husband accepted a twoyear teaching stint at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He fell in love with the “frozen north” so when I graduated from USC, we all moved to Alaska.
My advice to students is to hang in there — it will either get better or worse — it will not stay the same! Also, remember that education is not information. Education is learning the thinking skills necessary for you to live a rich, purposeful, generous life.
Having been only one of 11 women in my law school class, I was prepared to be the only woman in a private law firm in Anchorage – if, of course, I could get hired! For the next
Karen (Lueck) Hunt is a 1999 UNK Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.
UNK TODAY
