Harry G. Lester was a very lucky man in his middle years. The longtime Springs resident won a brand-new, baby-blue convertible in a raffle in 1957, and 12 years later he won thousands of dollars in the state lottery.
He made a life in Alaska for more than 40 years but returned to Springs about eight years ago. On Feb. 10 Mr. Lester died of congestive heart failure at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. The last member of his immediate family, he was 93 and had been ill for five days.
His many friends and four generations of nieces and nephews will remember him as a people person who “enjoyed a good laugh,” his family said.
Born in Southampton on April 9, 1926, he was the only son of James W. Lester and the former Mary Grimshaw. He and his two sisters grew up on Neck Path in Springs, in the house where he also spent his later years.
Mr. Lester enlisted in the Army, serving from 1952 to 1954. He was primarily stationed in Japan.
In his 20s he worked as a groundskeeper at the Maidstone Club. Later he worked for Ken Wessberg as a painter and started his own floor-sanding business. When he won the convertible in 1957, he was said to have taken “rides around town with a car full of ladies,” but he eventually sold the car because he couldn’t afford to keep it.
In June of 1964 Mr. Lester married Dorothy Casey, and in 1970 the couple moved to Anchorage. There he worked as a custodian at the Anchorage International Airport for many years. His wife died in 2009, and Mr. Lester remained in Anchorage until 2012.
He was an enthusiastic fan of the New York Yankees and the Iditarod sled dog races in Alaska. He looked forward to receiving postcards and letters from his friends and relatives, whom he loved to visit. A Bonacker through and through, he would often reminisce about “the good old days” but saw that the community had changed so much, his family said.
Mr. Lester’s two sisters, Marie Rea and Annamae Bennett, both lived in East Hampton and died before him. A stepson, William Casey of Anchorage, survives him, as do seven nephews and nieces, including Sandra Vatter of Springs, his caretaker for the last eight years, and Sharon Lester of Barefoot Bay, Fla., who regularly sent him greeting cards and old family photos. His other surviving nieces and nephews are Ronald Bennett of East Hampton, Barrie Rea of Maine, and Linda Schellinger, Donna Garrett, and Guy Bennett, all of Springs.
A graveside military service for Mr. Lester, who was cremated, will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Green River Cemetery in Springs. Ken Yardley of the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home will officiate at the ceremony.
Mr. Lester’s family has suggested memorial donations to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
