---- — ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Capt. Russell W. Lentner, United States Coast Guard, Ret., died peacefully July 28, 2010, at his home in St. Petersburg Fla., after a long illness.Mr. Lentner was born in Minneapolis in February 1922. He later moved to the Detroit area, where he attended high school. He played all manner of sports, but excelled in basketball. He was captain of the Highland Park High School All City basketball team in 1940 in Detroit. He later attended Eastern Michigan University.During World War II he entered the U.S. Navy and earned his wings in Pensacola, Fla. He married his high school sweetheart, Muriel Ila Hopper, of Detroit, in 1944. He eventually moved from the Navy to the Coast Guard in the late 1940s, and was assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station in Traverse City in 1947. His Commanding Officer at the air station at that time was Commander Willard J. Smith from Suttons Bay, who later rose to the rank of Admiral and became the 13th Commandant of the Coast Guard. Captain Lentner and Admiral Smith enjoyed a close personal association with each other throughout their careers and after retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard.During Mr. Lentner's Coast Guard career as a pilot, he flew search and rescue missions from Coast Guard air stations located in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, Rhode Island, the Philippines and Alaska (two tours), and he managed three separate tours of duty at the Traverse City Air Station. His last assignment before retirement in 1970 was in Traverse City from 1968-70, where he served as the Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard Air Station after having risen to the rank of Captain.Mr. Lentner's wife, Muriel, died in 1979 in Traverse City after a short illness. He married Ursula J. (Anders) Hemming in 1989. Ursula passed away in 2006 after a long illness.Mr. Lentner was an avid golfer and bridge player. He was a member and past President of the Traverse City Country Club, which he joined in the early 1960s. He was also a long-standing member of the Elks Club.Mr. Lentner is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Russell W. Lentner Jr. and Barbara A. (Read) Lentner of Springfield, Va.; his daughter and son-in-law, June Ann (Lentner) Zepp and Richard P. Zepp of Bradenton Fla.; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.A Memorial Service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, September 25, at Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home in Traverse City.Please share memories with the family at Mr. Lentner's online guestbook at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com.The family is being served by Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home, Traverse City.