Andrew Gunning’s life after work was far different from the numbers he crunched every day.
The marketing manager and accountant was a musician – a singer and trumpeter – as well as a highly regarded amateur photographer.
Gunning died Sept. 14 at an east Denver nursing facility. He was 85.
Hundreds attended a service for him Friday at Bethany Lutheran Church in Englewood, where Gunning had been a choir member for 55 years.
Dan Grace, choir director, led the choir in Gunning’s favorites hymns and a Beethoven selection, and then took Gunning’s place and played the trumpet as his ashes were placed in the columbarium outside.
“He was a fine musician, and a good, solid soloist,” Grace said. “And he was a wonderful, warm human being with a great sense of humor.”
Gunning led a youth choir there, taught voice lessons, sang in Denver Lyric Opera productions and played his trumpet and sang at private family events, with his wife, Lorraine Gunning, often accompanying him on the piano.
Gunning also excelled in black-and-white photography – with people as his main subject.
He was a regular winner in the annual Denver Post amateur photography contests.
Several of his photos were featured on the cover of the entertainment section of the paper, then called Roundup, and a feature section, called Empire magazine.
In his neighborhood, Gunning was known as “the tomato man” because he grew enough each year to supply neighbors and other friends. He delivered them, wrapping each tomato in newsprint to prevent bruising.
“He was really meticulous about things,” said his daughter, Kristy Meininger of Montrose.
Andrew Thompson Gunning was born Oct. 20, 1921, in Denver. His parents were pioneers in Denver’s Montclair neighborhood.
Gunning graduated from East High School, played trumpet in the marching and symphonic bands, and enrolled at the University of Denver, where he also played in bands, including a private dance band with friends.
A bass baritone, Gunning “was self- taught,” said Meininger, who is a music teacher and church choir director.
Gunning met Lorraine Seidenberg at DU and they married on July 22, 1943.
For 30 years Gunning put away his trumpet, and when he finally picked it up again it took a while to get his lips back in shape, his daughter said. “He told people he couldn’t kiss his wife because his lips were hurt and swollen.”
College was interrupted by World War II. Gunning was a Navy corpsman attached to a Marine Air Wing in the South Pacific.
After the war he returned to Denver and earned a business degree at DU and worked in marketing and accounting for the Chevron Corp., retiring in 1980.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by his son-in-law, Edwin Meininger.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
