Stanley Hunkins

Stanley Henry Hunkins, 89, of Minneapolis, MN, passed away on Sunday, May 10, 2020.  Stan is survived by his brother, Paul R. Hunkins (Marlene), and his three loving children, Holly O’Brien (Tony), Brian W. Hunkins (Mary), and Andrew D. Hunkins (Jen).  Also grandchildren, Cori Randall (Drew), Travis O’Brien (Chelsea), Julianne Wolf (Ken), Christina Di Bartolo (James), Becca Hunkins, Matt Hunkins; nephew, Jim Hunkins; stepdaughters, Felicia Myers and Mari-Beth Myers; and great-grandchildren, James Di Bartolo III and Hannah O’Brien. He was predeceased by brother, John Hunkins and sister, Louise “Tookie” Hunkins.

Stan was born in Minneapolis, MN on September 11, 1930 to Stanley F. and Louise Kruckeberg Hunkins. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1952 with a BA in Mathematics, then served in the US Navy as Communications Officer on the minesweeper USS Endicott during the Korean War.  In the years to follow, Stan enjoyed telling his children many engaging stories about his experiences in the Navy.

Once discharged, he returned to UMN to pursue his master’s degree, but upon the arrival of his first child, left academia and briefly worked for Univac in the Twin Cities area before accepting an engineering position with RCA and moving his family to Delaware Twp. (later Cherry Hill) NJ.  Not long after, he formed Ultronic Systems Corp. with several other former RCA employees, where he designed their entire stock market dissemination system for which he was awarded five US patents in the data communications field.

In 1968, Stan founded his second and most successful company, Infotron Systems Corp. with colleagues Jim Hahn and Tony Barbaro.  As president of Infotron, Stan designed data communications products and related software and firmware.  He grew the company from “three guys in the basement” to a multi-million dollar international corporation with several hundred employees.

Stan moved back to Minneapolis in the early 1980s and formed his third and fourth companies, Muse Ten Services, Inc., an incubator for small start-up businesses, and Hunmat Corp.  He often said he “didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up” and even until the time of his death was working on complex mathematical challenges involving encryption.

Stan was an uncommon individual who lived life on his own terms, never concerned about the opinions of others. He dearly loved and was generous to his children, but he was also fiercely self-sufficient. He will be missed.

A memorial will be held in Minneapolis when conditions permit. (Email hollyob624@gmail.com to be notified of a date.)