By Paul Maryniak | East Valley Tribune
Former Mesa City Manager Charles K. Luster, who devoted 42 years of service to the city at a time of its most dynamic growth, died Oct. 24 after a brief illness. He was 93.
Mr. Luster left a long legacy of accomplishments throughout his four-plus decades of public service, working with 11 mayors and city councils as the city transitioned from a quaint town of 27,000 to America’s 38th largest city with 400,000 residents at the time of his retirement in 2000.
But along with those accomplishments, Mr. Luster also left a legacy of fairness and personability as he rose through the ranks of the city’s administration from his first job as city engineer in 1957 to eventually city manager for 21 years.
