Obituaries
There is a light that will never go out...
It is with deepest regret that we announce the following death:
Tom Lunt
It is with great sadness that we record the death of Tom Lunt on 2nd May 2006, at the age of 86.
A Vincentian for close to forty years, he served as secretary and president of St John the Baptist Conference, Timperley, which he joined in 1968. He was President of the Altrincham District Council from 1983 to 1988 and Senior Vice-President from 1990 to 2000 of the Shrewsbury Central Council.
Tom was a man of formidable intellect but great humility. A graduate of Liverpool University in mathematics and physics, he was President of the Manchester Statistical Society and was later appointed Pro-Chancellor of Salford University from which he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Always deeply interested in people and their problems, Tom had a distinguished professional career with Ferranti as Staff Manager which was marked by a constant concern that every individual should reach his full potential and many will remember with gratitude his positive and sympathetic support.
His dedication to the service of others was especially manifested in his work as a Vincentian which he saw as a true vocation. In the notes for a talk he gave to a gathering of the Society he wrote,”I like to think that, when I joined the S.V.P., it was the Holy Spirit who called me to undertake work in the Society. I love people and to visit those in need is rewarding and even enjoyable. The Society’s discipline made sure that I continued even when, on cold winter’s nights I had to visit a dingy, smelly flat to solve some insoluble problem of debt and mismanagement.”
Unshakeable faith, underpinned by deep personal spirituality, was the mainspring of his life and this sustained him when, in a series of personal tragedies, his beloved wife and his two children predeceased him. However, he never lost his sense of humour and bore with fortitude and resignation to God’s will the illnesses of his latter years, through which he was lovingly nursed by his devoted sister.
Tom died peacefully, fortified by the rites of the Church, just as he would have wished. He will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by all who knew him.