Today’s semi-surprise sunshine ended right before the speeches concluded at this afternoon’s Seattle Parks celebration in honor of the newly named Walt Hundley Playfield by High Point Community Center. But the event continued with the cheery atmosphere of a family-and-friends reunion – which it was, with dozens of people on hand in addition to the official participants shown above – from left, Mr. Hundley’s son Evan, former mayors Wes Uhlman (1969-78) and Charley Royer (1978-90), former Parks superintendent Ken Bounds, Mr. Hundley’s son David, acting Parks superintendent Christopher Williams, and former Parks finance director Curt Green. Mr. Hundley had held other city roles, including budget director, and Uhlman recalled appointing him to the job in which he made history, serving 1977-88 as the city’s first African-American parks superintendent:

Everyone who spoke remembered Mr. Hundley’s mentorship skills – Williams, too, cited him as an inspiration:

Walt Hundley died in 2002; here’s his biography on HistoryLink. Members of the Hundley family noted sadly that they had hoped to have Walt’s widow Felisa Hundley would there to share in the tributes. She, however, died just weeks ago, two days before what would have been her 79th birthday (here’s her obituary). (added Sunday morning) Evan Hundley – who heads Explorer West Middle School – read a Maya Angelou poem that, he explained, his mother originally was planning to read at the event: