PORT ANGELES — It was the late Jim Lunt’s turn to be thanked Tuesday night.
The legendary youth coach and community volunteer had a ritual for young people who attended baseball jamborees at Lincoln Park Field No. 1 before they started their games on the park’s oldest of seven ballfields.
Lunt would have the young players turn east, face City Hall and yell, “Thank you, Port Angeles,” “because of what the city had done to give young people such an exemplary field,” Port Angeles resident Steve Zenovic told the City Council on Tuesday night.
In City Hall chambers filled with dozens of Lunt’s admirers, council members unanimously renamed Field No. 1 the Jim Lunt Memorial Field.
Lunt was 71 when he died of natural causes Aug. 25.
During a public celebration of life, the field will be dedicated Saturday, Sept. 27, at 1:05 p.m. — the traditional starting time for baseball games.
The council waived city Parks and Recreation Department policy in order to have the field renamed in time for the celebration of life, said Corey Delikat, city parks and recreation director.
Lunt was president of the all-volunteer North Olympic Baseball and Softball program for more than two decades.
A longtime coach, he drove a Port Angeles School District school bus.
He also had worked as a Peninsula College residence hall manager, financial aid director, student government adviser and athletic director.
He was a soccer coach and a Boy Scout leader.
He also was “prickly,” but in a good way, Zenovic said.
“People that were asking of him or of the community that were self-serving — he had a low threshold for that,” Zenovic said.
“Prickly came in if you didn’t work hard,” he added.
Add humility to Lunt’s makeup.
When he was honored in 2009 with a Clallam County Community Service Award, sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News and Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Noon Club, the only worry was that Lunt might back out, Councilwoman Cherie Kidd said Tuesday.
“He did not like anyone shining the spotlight on himself,” she said.
“He stood out. He stood out head and shoulders.”
That was the case even when Lunt toiled alone to make the community a better place.
Zenovic recalled coming upon Lunt bent over, by himself, weeding at the estuary on Marine Drive.
“That’s Jim,” Zenovic said before the City Council made its thank-you forever.
“Jim gave that leadership.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.