Community Corner

Summer Concert Series A Memorial to Jim Lull

A summer concert series will go on in memory of the man who put his heart into the project every year.

A longtime member of the Riverhead community will be remembered Friday as the summer concert series he devoted time and dedication to goes on, in his memory.

The Jim Lull Memorial Summer Concert Series will take place on Friday at the East End Arts Council on East Main Street in Riverhead with the Long Island Sound Symphony performing at 7:30 p.m. The rain location for the event is the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall.

Presented by Riverhead Townscape, John Wesley Village and the Modern Snack Bar, the event features guest conductor Ben Arendsen, the director of choral activities at Nassau Community College. A resident of Astoria, Queens, Ben has been an Assistant Conductor with the Oratorio Society of Queens since 2010.

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The Sound Symphony Orchestra is now in its 30th season as it performs its 2013  Summer Pops Concert Series. Under the direction of Arendsen, "Heroes and Heroines" will be the featured theme.  Selections include the overture to "West Side Story," "Star Wars," "Orpehus of the Underworld," "Ride of the Valkyries," and many more popular pieces.  Vocalist Stefanie Izzo will perform well known arias including "Romeo and Juliet."

Lull, who died in December at 72 after a long battle with congestive heart failure, left a legacy of giving and dedication in Riverhead.

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"He was a wonderful man, a gentle soul," Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said. Lull, during the eight years he served as a councilman on the Riverhead Town board, was a tireless advocate for animals.

Deeply committed to Riverhead, Lull and his wife Connie were the faces behind the Riverhead Country Fair for 27 years. The couple were integral in setting up a local soup kitchen, and Lull was also active in summer theater workshops and the town's summer concert series.

But behind a lifetime of public service was a man deeply cherished by, and devoted to, his family, including his wife Connie and four children, Jim Lull, Cindy Lull Hill, Jason Lull, and Carrie Lull LaCombe, and his grandchildren.

Connie Lull said she and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Oct. 25. She and her husband, a teacher, met while he attended Colgate University and she was a student at SUNY Cortland.

"Not many people know this story," Connie said. "We met on a blind date, and neither of us wanted to go."

Both Connie, who had been married at 17 and lost her husband in an accident, and Jim, who had lost a fiance to leukemia, were amazed to have found a kindred spirit who had similarly experienced heartbreak so young.

"It gave me chills," Connie said. "Jim told his friend, 'I just met the girl I'm going to marry.' After only one date."

The couple, Connie said, shared a lifetime of love. "I have 50 years of just wonderful memories from this man. I swear, he's the best person, other than Jesus Christ, that ever walked the earth. He was faithful, honest, and kind to everybody. And everyone in his life came first, starting with his family." 

As a father, Conniie said Lull would take his children on long walks through the woodlands behind their home, bird watching and teaching them to recognize bird calls. "Even as adults, they say, 'Daddy found my first owl in the woods.'"

Lull's son Jim Lull, Jr., who took over the reins of the Riverhead Country Fair in recent years with his co-coordinator Patrick Mulcahy, said his father was a "very special person."

Riverhead Town Councilman Jim Wooten said he and Lull were friends for over 30 years. "Jim was a true statesman," he said. "He quietly went about his passion of showing off and promoting what was the best of us as a community. Whether the Country Fair, theater workshops, summer concert series, creation of a soup kitchen -- and his love of the animals and the shelter."




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