James Edward Lunny
West Lebanon, N.H. — James Edward Lunny, 84, passed away peacefully on Feb. 3, 2013, at the home he and his wife Carolyn Anne shared for the past seven years in West Lebanon. He will be remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, brother and friend.
He was born on Sept. 5, 1928, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of James Edward and Marguerite Natalie Lunny, the oldest of four children, and grew up on the South Shore of Long Island. After graduating from Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, he attended Pratt Institute, also in Brooklyn, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, he went to work at Fairchild Industries in Farmingdale, N.Y., where he began a long career working with and developing gas turbine engines, for both commercial and military aircraft applications.
He married the former Carolyn Utvik in January of 1954, the two having been introduced on a blind date, and they settled in Massapequa, N.Y. and started a family.
Upon the shutdown of Fairchild’s operations on Long Island, Mr. Lunny moved to the Lycoming Division of AVCO in Stratford, Conn., where he continued his work for the next 30 years. The family moved to Trumbull, Conn. and continued to grow. During Mr. Lunny’s long career at Lycoming, he helped lead the company’s T-53, T-55 and AGT-1500 gas turbine programs. These engines saw and continue to see extensive use in the US Army’s Bell AH-1 Cobra and Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters and M-1 Abrams tank .
The young family outgrew the house in Trumbull, and Jim and Carolyn moved to Redding , Connecticut in 1964, where they stayed for 26 years and raised a family of four sons and three daughters. While in Redding, he was an active member of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, serving as a lay reader for many years, and as the first president of the St. Patrick’s Lay Advisory Council. He was a volunteer and assistant leader for Troop 15 of the Boy Scouts of America. And he was appointed to serve on the Town of Redding’s Board of Ethics.
Jim and Carolyn bought a small cottage on Lake Bomoseen in Vermont in 1982 where the family enjoyed summer vacations for the next 20 years. While at the lake, Jim enjoyed boating and water-skiing and being visited by his growing family, now including several grandchildren.
Nearing the end of his time with Lycoming, it having been acquired by Textron, Jim was given the opportunity to take a short assignment in Hawaii for the company. The couple moved to Oahu where they stayed for a year. Subsequent moves took them to South Carolina and then to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, before they ultimately settled in West Lebanon.
Mr. Lunny is survived by his wife Carolyn with whom he shared a love affair of nearly 60 years. He is also survived by his four sons and three daughters, James and his wife, Patricia of Basking Ridge, N.J., Barbara of Coconut Creek, Fla., Pamela of Stamford, Conn., Steven of Redondo Beach, Calif., David and his wife, Ann of Quincy, Mass., Paul of Summerville, S.C. and Karen Seltzer and her husband Marc of Hanover, N.H. In addition, Jim and Carolyn are blessed with eighteen grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Family and friends are invited to Ricker Funeral Home in Lebanon, N.H. on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, for a calling hour at 2 p.m. with a celebration of life to follow at 3 p.m. at the funeral home. The family plans to have a private memorial service followed by burial in the spring. For more information, and to send online condolences, visit www.rickerfuneralhome.com.
Memorial donations may be made to the Hospice Program of the Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire, and to the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
