Raising money for the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas is deeply personal for Dan Hunt, president of FC Dallas and a member of the family sporting empire that owns the soccer team and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Age-related macular degeneration and other eye-related problems don’t run in his father’s side of the family, so much as they race through it, says Hunt. The businessman is the son of the late sports icon Lamar Hunt, and the descendant of oil baron H.L. Hunt.
“I’ve had a number of uncles and aunts who had AMD,” he said in an interview. “My aunt Caroline [Hunt] was effectively blind. My father had his own vision problems. He had severe glaucoma and astigmatism.”
But his late mother, Norma Hunt’s, battle with AMD is why he’s pouring his heart into co-chairing the foundation’s upcoming Vision Lunch on May 8 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
His mother died in 2023 having given up much of her coveted independence ― and her car keys ― because of her increasingly blurred vision.
“I went through that journey with her and her initial devastation about the thought of her losing her eyesight,” said Hunt, also the younger brother of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
“My mother was the most vibrant human being who loved living and doing things. So the deterioration in her eyesight was devastating to her,” he adds.
“I remember her willingly giving up driving, because she said, ‘I could not live with myself if I hurt somebody driving my car.’ ”
During the final few years of her life, Norma, the beloved matriarch of the KC Chiefs, received eyeball injections that arrested but couldn’t reverse the damage done.
“But the decline had stopped. It was static,” Hunt said. “And that was joyful to her.”
His fellow co-chair, Jay Rosser, T. Boone Pickens’ longtime chief of staff, is picking up the torch for his late boss, who had advanced AMD and was passionate about finding a cure. The legendary oil tycoon seeded $2.5 million in 2009 to jumpstart research at the foundation.
“Boone would be incredibly proud and grateful for the hundreds of others who have supported the Retina Foundation in the 15 years since his gift,” Rosser said, “But he would be the first to say the work is far from done and desperately needs continued support.”
The event will be headlined by Eric Stonestreet, best known for his Emmy-winning role as Cam Tucker in the ABC sitcom Modern Family, and by his mother, Jamey, who has AMD.
Both Stonestreets live in Kansas City and are ardent Chiefs fans.
AMD runs in their family, too.
“My grandmother Helen, who was my mom’s mother, was a long sufferer of macular degeneration,” Stonestreet said in an email. “My mom thankfully has controlled AMD. We welcome the opportunity to raise awareness for the disease and encourage people to keep regular with their eye doctor.
“We are grateful for the Hunts and all the work they do on behalf of sufferers and to raise awareness.”
Dan Hunt summed up his feelings this way: “Sometimes we all take our eyesight for granted. We have this unbelievable institution in Dallas with the Retina Foundation.
“The money that they raise and the treatments they provide for young and old with different eye issues are amazing. Their accomplishments need to be trumpeted even louder.”
