Ex-campaign finance chief Lee R. Lutz dies

Lee R. Lutz, who ran a weekly newspaper chain and served as executive director of Suffolk County's campaign finance board, died of cancer last Sunday at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson. The Miller Place resident was 62.

Lutz, a longtime land surveyor who also sold real estate, relished launching a new career in journalism in his mid-50s, said his son Mark, of Geneva, Ill.

In May 2005, Lutz began writing stories for Setauket-based Times Beacon Record Newspapers.

He served as executive editor from April 2006 until February.

Joe Darrow, 29, of Stony Brook, former editor of two of the newspapers, called Lutz "a person of very high personal integrity. One of his favorite lines was: 'Every story has at least two sides.' "

Born May 28, 1948, in Port Jefferson, Lutz grew up in Rocky Point and graduated from Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jefferson in 1966.

Lutz studied engineering at the University of Miami until 1969, when he began working for his father's land-surveying business in Rocky Point.

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In 1970, he married Francesca Pluta.

Lutz became a partner in the family business in 1976, taking it over the following year when his father retired. He sold the business in 1995.

In an interview in 2004, Lutz told Newsday that Ross Perot's 1992 presidential run had piqued his interest in politics, and he began advocating to change the campaign finance system.

Lutz was appointed to the county's campaign finance board as a volunteer member and became executive director in October 2000.

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"He wanted to fix the system," Mark Lutz said.

"He was really ethical and wished the world would be ethical," said Anne Riordan, a campaign finance board member. "He was one of the most motivated and moral people I've ever met."

In 2004, county lawmakers refused to pay Lutz, but he continued to work anyway.

The board was defunded in January 2005. Lutz sued the county for his back pay. The case was eventually settled, Mark Lutz said.

Lutz was diagnosed with cancer in 2009.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include sister Lenore Rogers, of Rocky Point; brother Larry Lutz, of East Setauket; a daughter, Pamela Herbst, of Stony Brook; and four grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at stjude.org.

A service was held Saturday at Mount Sinai Congregational Church, followed by burial at Sea View Cemetery in Mount Sinai.