I only knew Terry Lunardi 15 minutes. But it didn't take long to like the guy. Tuesday, 7:15 a.m., I was the first to arrive for a 7:30 a.m. meeting at Lunardi's popular Davenport restaurant. I was there in my role as a business reporter.

Terry said he had gotten up earlier than usual to open his place for the meeting.

He had coffee and doughnuts ready. A friendly smile and firm handshake greeted me as I introduced myself.

"Cream is on the right," he said as I searched around, coffee cup in hand.

I wondered aloud whether I had the correct venue because no other cars were in the parking lot when I pulled in. "Some of these people are known for showing up at the last minute," he said, laughing.

Then, he began talking about the purpose of the meeting - to answer questions about a new format for area chambers. "Quad-Cities First will oversee the economic development arm" of both the Illinois and Iowa chambers. "I think it is a great idea. ... It will be a great service to its members."

As people began to filter in, he seemed to greet them all. It must have been six, seven minutes later when he collapsed.

The 911 call was made at exactly 7:30 a.m. Efforts to save Terry Lunardi failed. He was pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital.

Tara Barney, president and chief executive officer of DavenportOne, who helped give CPR to Terry, said that day: "He touched so many people. So many have been part of Terry's life. We will never know how many."

Here are but a few ...

Terry was on many committees and boards, among them the Riverboat Development Authority.

"To know Terry was to love him," said Shirley Schmidt, administrative assistant for the authority.

Davenport attorney Curt Beason, chairman of the River Music Experience board, talked about Terry's unselfishness after Centro restaurant, located in the RME building, closed in 2007.

Beason first approached Terry about moving his restaurant in that downtown Davenport spot. Terry declined. "But he said, 'I think I know the right guy,' and he worked to get the Woodfire Grill set up."

Terry knew Toby Christianson, who now runs the place.

Beason said a community investment group called Redstone Woodfire Grill LLC was formed with local investors to finance the project. "Not only did (Terry) assist in bringing Toby into town, he also was the point person in financing to get the deal done. We needed someone who understood the restaurant business, even though this was going to be a competing business."

Christianson recently told Beason "there hasn't been a single Sunday since the restaurant opened that Terry Lunardi hadn't been there to hang out. He is just that type of guy, and nothing for himself."

Rene Hipple, vice president of member and resource development for DavenportOne, called 911 that morning and stayed on the line as the radio dispatcher gave her instructions on cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to pass along to those who tried to revive Terry.

She and Betsy Brandsgard, an executive vice president of DavenportOne, were among some who prayed as EMTs worked. "Betsy and I went over to the side, asking God to be present," Hipple said.

Later, she reflected on the impact Terry had on her.

She met him a few years ago when she worked for the Scott County Family YMCA and Terry served on that board. Later, she worked for RME, where he was on the board.

While at RME, she asked Terry's help to promote River Roots Live, an event in its second year that needed more exposure. Terry suggested she partner with Chad Pregracke, the young East Moline man who had become well-known for cleaning up waterways all over the country with his group, Living Lands & Waters. The idea was to have the festival pay homage to the river, and Pregracke made sense. It worked.

Later, when a position at DavenportOne opened, Terry recommended her. She was hired in 2007.

"I am very grateful he was in my life," she said.

Steve Ahrens, a former Davenport alderman and now development director for the Davenport Levee Improvement Commission, said Terry "was the older brother I never had. He was always there for counsel and a good laugh."

What Ahrens remembered most vividly was when his mom had a stroke two years ago and almost died. "Terry came often to visit her and kept in daily contact with me.

"That was the kind of angelic force that he was."

Ahrens also was at Tuesday's meeting at Lunardi's restaurant and rode to the hospital in the ambulance with Terry.

"I am beyond sad. It will hit me next week like a ton of bricks. ... It was almost indescribable what I was feeling. I had hoped he was going to wake up."

That did not happen.

But Ahrens knows Terry now is in a good place.

"So, I look forward to the day I see my friend again, and I know I will."

I only knew Terry Lunardi 15 minutes.

Seems longer than that.