Eugene “Gene” Harold Luntey passed away peacefully in the early evening of September 8, 2022 at his Shelter Island home. He was 101.
There was a beautiful East End sunset and a rising near-full harvest moon and he was surrounded by his son, Kirk, and his daughter-in-law, Dorothy. Although his health was failing, Gene told his doctor the day before, “I’m not sick, I’m just old!”
He was predeceased by Beverly Weber Luntey, his wife of 53 years and Kirk’s mother. Gene later married Betty Brodie, who predeceased him after 15 years of happy marriage. Betty’s four children, 10 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren brought joy to Gene’s final years.
Gene was born on May 29, 1921, in Buhl, Idaho, population 2,500. During high school, he delivered newspapers, worked in the only drugstore in town, and was salutatorian in 1939. He graduated from the University of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1943 and received a scholarship to the Institute of Gas Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
His studies were interrupted by World War II. He joined the Navy as an ensign, trained as an airborne electronics officer, and proceeded to train Navy pilots in radar and electronic navigation — including dropping torpedoes. He also worked for the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development, designing naval aircraft rockets.
In February 1948, Gene and Beverly arrived in New York City with two suitcases, $500 in the bank, 20 inches of snow on the ground, and no place to live. Gene had accepted a junior engineer position at the Brooklyn Union Gas Company where a company officer arranged for them to rent a friend’s guest room.
While at Brooklyn Union, he worked nearly every engineering job, including supervising, installing, and maintaining mains and services for the entire borough. He helped to plan, design, and install facilities, participating in the conversion to replace manufactured gas, in use for 100 years, with natural gas.
He became an NYS licensed engineer and in 38 years at Brooklyn Union rose from assistant vice president, vice president, and executive vice president to company president and chairman for the last 11 years there, before mandatory retirement at 65.
Active in the natural gas industry in the US and around the world, Gene was chairman of the New York Gas Group and president of the Society of Gas Lighting. He was a member of the NYS Energy Development Authority, chairman of the Gas Research Institute, and chairman of the American Gas Association.
He also worked extensively in public service. Gene was an active volunteer, always eager to give back to his community. He served on the local civic association and the Port Washington Board of Education and was deputy mayor and chief police commissioner of Sands Point for 25 years. He mentored the Rockefeller Fellows of the New York City Partnership and served on the boards of the Regional Plan Association and NYC Planning committees.
He was on the boards of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Polytechnic University and led fundraising efforts for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Long Island College Hospital. In 1983, Gene joined the Long Island University board and became the first chancellor of the Brooklyn campus, and then chairman of the university for five years.
St. Francis College in Brooklyn, Polytechnic University, and Long Island University awarded him honorary doctorates. The University of Idaho recognized him as an outstanding alumnus with its Silver and Gold Award in 1983.
Gene brought his family to Shelter Island in the early 70s, and in 1979, he designed and built their house. Since 2001, Gene lived on Shelter Island and Hilton Head Island, where he was a member of St. Andrews by the Sea Methodist Church and an active volunteer at Hilton Head Memorial Hospital. The hospital named him Volunteer of the Year when he was 93.
Gene also loved reading, beating solitaire on his iPad, and spending time with his ever-growing family.
Gene was a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, Gardiner’s Bay Country Club, and a longtime trustee of Union Chapel in the Grove. His fellow Chapel trustees remember Gene as a “true gentleman” whose dedication to the Chapel never wavered, even on the Zoom meetings in which he was an active participant, making wry comments.
They recalled how proud he was of his flower garden, and how he loved to show off Betty’s paintings that often featured his favorite dahlias. “We will always remember him fondly when we hear our bells ringing in the cadence he insisted on,” one trustee said. Those same bells will ring at his memorial service.
Gene’s life will be celebrated at a memorial service at Union Chapel in the Grove in Shelter Island Heights, New York on Friday, October 7 at 2 pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family appreciates donations made in Gene’s memory to the Eugene H. and Beverly W. Luntey Scholarship Fund, Long Island University, 700 Northern Boulevard, Brookville, NY 11548, or Union Chapel in the Grove, PO Box 326, Shelter Island Heights, NY 11965.
