On April 13, 2018, Henry Maxwell Lummis III announced to his family that he was “ready to go be with the Lord,” and on Friday, May 04, 2018 he departed this world from Superior Care Home in Paducah, Kentucky, while surrounded by family and friends. “Pete” was born on December 14, 1926 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Henry Maxwell Jr. (“Harry”) and Mary Elizabeth (Hine) Lummis, raised in a loving home at 806 Overbrook Road, and attended grades one through seven at Stoneleigh Elementary School. At the age of 12 Pete began working with his dad, a land surveyor, while also helping out after school and summers at Dollenberg Brothers in Towson, where he learned to use a surveying instrument, and at Derby Steel in Towson, where he developed an interest in engineering. Harry introduced Pete to hunting and fishing at an early age; Pete was an avid member of The Boy Scouts of America, including troop bugler; and throughout grade school and high school, he ran track and played soccer. While attending Towson High School, music became a large part of his life, and at his 1944 graduation he played a trumpet solo comprising seven variations on “Carnival of Venice.” That year, he met his future wife, Mary Jean Milwain, whose family had moved to Baltimore from Bardwell, Kentucky.
In June 1944, Pete enrolled at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and in June 1945, he Joined the Air Force. After completing his basic training at Keesler Field, Mississippi, he served at Scott Field, Illinois, working as an assistant to the post engineer, and receiving an honorable discharge in November 1946. That month, he married Mary Jean and went back to Johns Hopkins under the G.I. Bill, living in a garage apartment and working odd jobs. In college, he studied hard and played soccer, including against the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. In 1949, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, and in 1950 he received a Master of Science in structural engineering, having published a paper for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) called “Design Curves for Anchored Steel Sheet Piling.” His first job after graduation was with the American civil engineering company Sverdrup & Parcel in St. Louis.
In 1951, Pete and Mary Jean moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where Pete consulted on the construction of the Atomic Energy plant, working with Smith Hinchman & Grylls Associates (then F H McGraw) and directly for Union Carbide. Around this time, he published a second paper for the ASCE: “Influence Lines for Circular Ring Redundents.” In 1960, Pete began working for a start-up fabricator in Metropolis Illinois, Southern Illinois Steel Products Corporation, and in 1967 he was named president. In 1980, he moved the company to Paducah under the name Sisteel Corporation, and in 1997 he sold the business and became a freelance engineering consultant. That year, he married his second wife, Azalea Golightly of Metropolis, Illinois. One of a very few engineers in the area registered as Professional Engineer (PE) in both Illinois and Kentucky, as well as Structural Engineer (SE) in Illinois, Pete continued working under the name Lummis Consulting until age 88, at which time he retired. His legacy as a structural engineer is memorialized all over town in structures including Paducah’s Monticello replica and the downtown Paducah Sun building.
Pete’s facility with sines, cosines, tangents, square roots, etc. carried over into the computer age. In the late 1970s, he purchased a WANG computer the size of a washing machine, taught himself the computer programming language BASIC, and wrote all of the programming for his company’s accounting and bookkeeping practices. From then on, he was first in line for the latest desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches. His love for gadgets also extended to wheeled and winged vehicles, including the three-wheel car he built from a kit, the six-wheel ATV (all-terrain vehicle) he used to go hunting, Paducah’s first Smart car, and the small planes he flew after obtaining his private pilot license. His most cherished memories were of fishing with his Dad (illicitly) at Loch Haven reservoir in Baltimore, his days at Johns Hopkins, his time spent hunting ducks and geese with his friends and eldest son Max, and the many precious moments spent with his wife, children, and grandchildren. A man of ever deepening faith, Pete was an active member of Fountain Avenue United Methodist Church for decades and of Broadway United Methodist Church from 1997 to 2018, where he was a trustee. He will be laid to rest next to his dad, in Parkwood Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Pete is survived by his wife of 20 years, Azalea Lummis; children, Henry Maxwell Lummis IV (Connie) of Bonita Springs, Florida, Jennifer Lynn Travis (Ronny) of Paducah, David Michael Lummis (Csaba) of Paducah; three grandchildren—Julie Ann Lummis Motes (Robert), Catherine Susanne Lummis Scott (Thomas), and Henry Maxwell Lummis V (Brandy); and eight great grandchildren—Robert, Elisabeth, and Brady Motes, Sam, Charles, and Joseph Scott, and Henry and Jack Lummis, with a ninth Lummis grandchild on the way; and by step children Richard Golightly (Debby) and Cathe Glass (Kelly), and step grandchildren and great grandchildren Toby and Leigh Glass (Ella), Jacob and Careece Glass (Sam, Ceeley, and Jonah ), and Mckense and Chandler Shepherd (Riley and Piper). Pete also leaves behind and remembers his sister-in-law Evelyn (Milwain) Yates, his brother-in-law Robert Prince; his nephew Stephen Prince; and his niece Cynthia Kazyak and her family.
Preceding Pete in death were his parents, Henry Maxwell Jr. and Mary Elizabeth (Hine) Lummis, and his sister, Jean Ellen Prince.
A memorial service will be held at 1pm Thursday, May 17, 2018 at Broadway United Methodist Church with Reverend Joe Beal. Visitation will begin at 11am on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Broadway United Methodist Church, 701 Broadway Street, Paducah, Kentucky, 42001, or to Fountain Avenue United Methodist Church, 300 Fountain Avenue, Paducah, Kentucky 42001.
You may leave a message of sympathy at www.milnerandorr.com.
