Dr. John Paul Lunas

DOVER - Doctor John Paul Lunas was born on March 11, 1936 in Glen Ridge, NJ, a son to Lawrence John and Pauline H. (MacGahan) Lunas. Paul’s mother was an artist/homemaker in Verona, NJ and Haines Falls, NY, while Paul's father was an Electrical Engineer with Westinghouse. Paul followed in his Uncle Bill MacGahan’s footsteps and pursued a career as a Medical Doctor.

Paul graduated from Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, NJ in 1954. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, in 1958, he attended Duke University in Durham, NC, and earned his Medical Doctor degree in 1962.

He married his first wife Jill in 1960 and started a family. He then went to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for a mixed surgical internship until he was called to duty with the Public Health Service in June 1963. As a Surgical Officer, he was stationed at Mt. Edgecombe, Alaska, along with multiple temporary duties around the Pacific Rim on the Islands of Guam, Wake Island, Amaknak and multiple other towns in Alaska.

Following his PHS service, in 1967, Paul continued his medical education at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon until 1970 when he completed his Internal Medicine Residency.

After falling in love with the beauty and fishing in Alaska, he returned his family to Mt. Edgecombe. In 1971, he purchased a practice from a retiring physician in Sitka, AK. Following a contentious and polarizing divorce from his first wife, he met Sharron and they were wed in 1984. Paul adopted her three young boys and practiced in Sitka until 1990. Paul’s duties as one of the towns few physicians not only included seeing patients in office, but he took care of them while in the hospital, took calls for not only his patients but for other doctors in town, performed house calls and covered the Emergency Room at Sitka Community Hospital.

Following Paul’s father Larry’s death in 1990, Paul felt the need to be closer to his “snow bird” mother in NY. He closed his practice in Sitka and moved to Cortland, NY where Paul, Sharron and the boys were joined by Sharron’s adult daughter and her family. Paul practiced briefly as Internist in Cortland, seeing patients at the hospital and the office until he was offered an opportunity to cover Emergency Room duties for a contract organization. Paul practiced as a traveling Emergency Room Physician all over the state of New York for many years after also becoming emergency room board certified.

In 2018, Paul retired after 56 years of practice at the age of 82. He spent his retirement gardening, fishing, reading, visiting grandchildren and caring for everyone around him. He will be remembered for his kind eyes, his severely arthritic hands which were extremely adept at suturing, his sense of humor, his involvement with Shiloh Lutheran Church Choir, his multiple stories and for being one of the most giving and loving human beings to exist.

He loved his children and his grandchildren seemingly even more. He never had an unkind word about anyone and his intellect was unsurpassed. He was a member of Mensa, the Triple Nine Society and ISPE. He was a chief flight surgeon for FAA in AK and past president of Alaska Heart Association.

He was a lifelong learner, reading Medical Journals even up to the time of his death. He passed quietly reading at his kitchen table on June 29th, 2023. He is loved and missed by his nuclear and extended family.

He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Sharron; nine children, both natural, and adopted, Aprille Lynne and Steve Alderson of FL, Edna Leverne and William Johnson of Dover, PA, William Louis Smith III and Alexia Van Treese of Cortland, NY, Colin Watson and Lynn (Davis) Lunas of Sitka, Alaska, Philip Leighton and Cheri Lunas of Cortland, NY, William Alan and Jean Jorgensen of Ammon, Idaho, Terese (Terry) and Ken Meerdink of Federal Way, WA, Lisa Kirsten (Kirsti) and Dan McElligott of Beaverton, OR and Frederick (Fritz) Warren and Melissa MacGahan of Lisbon, Portugal. He is also survived by 24 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren; as well as a sister Anne (Jerry) Vincent of Charlotte, NC, and her sons, Andrew and Carol Vincent of Arlington, VA, Jimmy Vincent of Charlotte, NC and Robert and Ava Vincent of Lawrenceville, GA; and 5 grand-nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Service is to be held Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 3:00 PM, with a visitation from 2:00-3:00 PM at Heffner Funeral Chapel & Crematory, Inc. in York, PA.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for memorial contributions to be made to the York County SPCA.

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