George R. Lunn
George Richard Lunn (June 23, 1873 – November 27, 1948) was an American clergyman and politician from New York. He was the first Socialist mayor in the state of New York, a U.S. Representative from 1917 to 1919, and the lieutenant governor of New York from 1923 to 1924.
George R. Lunn
Clayton R. Lusk (acting)
June 23, 1873
Lenox, Iowa, U.S.
November 27, 1948 (aged 75)
Del Mar, California, U.S.
Socialist (before 1916)
Democratic (1916–48)
Early years[edit]
George R. Lunn was born June 23, 1873, on a farm located near the small town of Lenox, Iowa.[1] His parents, Martin Adolphus Lunn and the former Martha Bratton, reared 6 surviving children, four boys and two girls, with three others dying in infancy.[2]
The son and grandson of farmers, Lunn was raised in a conservative religious household which strictly observed the Sabbath and regarded the playing of musical instruments in church to be an unacceptable nod to secularity.[3] The family relocated to the city of Des Moines when George was just a boy, and he quit school at the age of 12 to work there as a paperboy.[1]
At the age of 17 Lunn left home and briefly relocated to Council Bluffs, Iowa.[4] He then made his way further west to Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked as the driver of a delivery wagon.[1] As a teenager, Lunn decided to enter the Christian ministry and he began three years of preparatory educational work to make up the high school education that he lacked.[4]
He was accepted to Bellevue College in Bellevue, Nebraska, enrolling in the fall of 1892 and graduating in 1897.[1] In 1893 the 20-year old Lunn was approached by the congregation of a small church in La Platte, Nebraska, located five miles south of Bellevue, and was asked to become their pastor.[5] Although he had never preached before, church parishioners were not aware of this fact and Lunn accepted the position.[5] He would retain the position for several years, paid out of the church's weekly collections.[5]
Lunn was anxious to attend the Princeton Theological Seminary and in the fall of 1897 he enrolled there.[6] However, near the end of his first year at Princeton the Spanish–American War erupted.[6] He returned home to Omaha to take over a Presbyterian pastorate for the summer, where he was convinced to take a position offered him as a chaplain in the United States Army, holding the rank of Corporal as part of the Company A of the Third Nebraska Regiment.[1] He spent the duration of the brief war stationed in Jacksonville, Florida.[7]
Following his release from the military, Lunn enrolled at Union Theological Seminary—an institution which he felt was less conservative and constraining than was the Princeton Seminary.[7] He would graduate from Union Theological Seminary in 1901, finally gaining ordination as a Presbyterian minister.[7]
Lunn married in May 1901[7] and upon graduation was called to be the associate pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn.[8][1] He would remain there until 1904, at which time he was named the pastor of the First Dutch Reformed Church of Schenectady, New York.[1]
Death and burial[edit]
Lunn retired to Del Mar, California, where he died on November 27, 1948.[19] He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[20] Together with his first wife, the former Mabel Healy of Brooklyn, Lunn raised a total of 5 children.[1] Made a widower in 1931, Lunn remarried in 1932, wedding Anita Oliver Jensen of California.[1]