The contents of the long-lost wallet belonging to Blakely Hunt. Photo by Bob Fussa.
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
What would you be if you were black and had been stuck inside a cinderblock wall in the boys’ locker room of the Honeoye Falls-Lima gymnasium since 1976? The perhaps surprising answer turns out to be Blakely Hunt’s long-lost wallet. Our stories come to us under strangely circuitous circumstances sometimes and this one certainly qualifies as such a scenario.
For the next two weeks we are going to be sharing stories related to the HF-L Capital Project Phase 3B renovations. This project was initiated in 2024 and one component led to the removal of a ceiling and wall in the old boys’ locker room. Here is where we meet Blakely Hunt and his long-lost black wallet.
Upon removal of the tiles, a wallet was discovered which had dropped down into the hollowed-out spot of a cinderblock that was part of the wall. The wallet ended up in the hands of Director of Facilities, Bob Fussa. For the record, Bob’s complete title is Director of Facilities, Capital Projects, Safety & Security. Sounds like the dude does it all, doesn’t it?
This discovery had been made in the early fall of 2024 and Bob had gone through the process of reuniting the wallet and its original owner several months ago. We’ll circle back to this part in a bit.
When we eventually spoke to Bob, he told us about how he and some colleagues were all laughing about one of our “Old HF-L Memories” Sentinel stories where Smitty had gotten busted for having his high school absence excuses forged. “You know what,” Bob thought, “I bet those Smiths could have some fun with this story!” And he made a mental note to bring it up next time he talked to his usual Sentinel contact person, editor Donna MacKenzie.
Donna subsequently connected us with Bob, who in turn connected the dots for us during a phone interview which had parties laughing on both ends. Here’s the scoop…
Once the wallet’s in Bob’s possession, he begins the task of trying to figure out who might be the original owner. Upon emptying the wallet, Bob finds himself looking at the following contents which can be seen in the picture above.
In the wallet are Blakely Hunt’s name, a Star Market card, social security card, learner’s permit, and a folded-up letter of recommendation from a farmer Blakely once worked for. So at this point Bob has the owner’s name and the confirmation that Blakely was one height-enhanced dude, with his learner’s permit listing him as 6’ 5” tall at 16 years old!
It so happens that Athletic Director Brian Donohue’s former secretary (retired) Joy Jennejohn is in subbing for Bob’s secretary that day. Joy’s husband Bob is an HF-L ’77 grad and when called into the loop he remembers Blakely as a tall guy he thinks graduated in 1978.
So they have a name to work with and one of the contents is a phone number on a Star Market card. Bob calls the number and gets the Honeoye Fall Market Place grocery store. If you’ve been around long enough, you might remember that genealogy of that establishment as morphing from Star Market ->Bells Market->HFMP. Perhaps not surprisingly, the phone number has never been changed and the call serves to confirm the fact that Blakely had worked at Star Market back in 1976.
At this point we’re going to turn things over to Bob and have him outline the process of how he managed to connect with Blakely Hunt. “After doing a simple Google search for Blake Hunt, Rochester NY, we found this last known Penfield address and phone number.
The address on Embry Road was the last address that our records person, Mrs. Carol Vahue, had on file for Mr. Hunt. I called the (585) 208-5241 number and left a message. Blake called back about 2 weeks later and told us his story… that they had moved to Florida a few years back, and that he didn’t answer his phone when he wasn’t familiar with the number due to the many political calls he was receiving around that time. He also said that he did not regularly check his voice mail, so that is why it took him so long to get back to us.”
Just to fill in the gap on Blakely Hunt, he lived on Boughton Hill Road through high school. He subsequently moved to Penfield where he lived most of his adult life working as an Irondequoit policeman. He currently lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Upon making contact with Mr. Hunt, he is of course surprised to be informed of the discovery of a personal item of his that had gone missing almost half a century ago. The surprise is actually even a little greater than you might have anticipated. Turns out Blakely Hunt doesn’t even remember having lost a wallet back in high school.
Of course the details of how the wallet was lost is just one of the looming questions. One can only hope to wonder how many agricultural opportunities were missed because of Blakely being unable to present the letter of recommendation that had been written for him by that farmer.
