Russ Lunt, photographed in 2016 when he was featured as one of the Press Herald’s Mainers To Be Thankful For. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer Russ Lunt was such a frequent presence at South Portland City Council meetings that he was often called the “8th councilor.” Perhaps an even more fitting name would have been Mr.
South Portland. A lifelong resident who said he knew every inch of the city, Lunt spent his career taking care of his hometown and his retirement as its biggest cheerleader. Determined to always see the positive, his friends and family say the jolly guy with a sunny smile forged friendly connections with people he met in South Portland and far beyond its borders through the photos he shared on Facebook.
Lunt died June 23 after a brief illness. He was 66. “I don’t think anyone in South Portland loved it more than Russ,” said City Councilor Linda Cohen, who first met Lunt when she moved onto the route he plowed in 1989.
Lunt grew up in South Portland, the second of four children born to Kenneth Lunt Jr. and Elizabeth Ann Lunt. He studied in the automotive program at Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute, then worked for 34 years at South Portland Public Works.
As a plow truck driver, Lunt was known for being meticulous and doing what he could to avoid plowing driveways back in as people were shoveling them out, Cohen said. People along his route would run out to give him snacks – a woman once brought him a sleeve of Ritz crackers because that.
