Cool, Calm and Collecting a Fortune : Luck: Lompoc man, 72, quietly turns in his $51.6-million Lotto winner, a record for a single ticket-holder. He plans to do some traveling with his wife--and keep working.

Augustine Chiarenza saw much of the world as an airman during World War II and the Korean War. Now, the 72-year-old winner of Super Lotto’s $51.6-million jackpot plans to see it at a more leisurely pace.

Chiarenza calmly cashed in the winning ticket at the Ventura lottery office Monday, saying the swirl of excitement surrounding his windfall “hasn’t really struck me yet.”

“I still can’t visualize what this means,” he said. “I’m in a state of shock.”

Chiarenza bought the ticket Friday at a convenience store in his hometown of Lompoc, west of Santa Barbara. When he saw the numbers match up in the newspaper, he said, he refused to believe it.

“I didn’t even tell my wife at first,” he said. “I went down to the store and had them check, and when it checked out, I called her and said: ‘We won the grand prize. All six numbers.’ ”

But it was not until Monday, when Marguerite Chiarenza arrived with her husband to claim the prize, that she realized how much they had won.

“Wait,” she said, cupping her hands over her mouth as her husband repeated the amount to a reporter. “I thought it was $5 million. It’s $50 million? Oh my goodness!”

When Chiarenza arrived at the lottery office Monday to claim his prize, he was as calm as if he had won only $5.

“My life’s not going to change,” said Chiarenza, a 34-year employee at Martin Marietta’s Vandenberg Air Force Base facility.

“I don’t plan to quit my job or do anything different other than pay off my car and my house,” he said. “I’ll even go buy my lottery ticket every week, just like I have for the past five years.”

Marguerite Chiarenza said she planned to fly to Virginia to see her mother, and both expressed a desire to travel.

“He saw the whole world when he was in the Air Force,” Marguerite Chiarenza said. “Now we can see it together.”

Outside of travel, Chiarenza said he may give some of his money to the Elks Club in Lompoc, where he has long been a member. But he plans to invest most of the money.

The payout, which Chiarenza won on a Quick Pick ticket, is the largest California lottery prize awarded to a single ticket-holder. The winning numbers were 6, 11, 26, 27, 38 and 50. The previous record was a $45.3-million award given in 1990 to Thomas Tehee of Upland.

Lottery officials said Monday that $90 million in tickets were sold before Saturday’s drawing, and $30.6 million of that money will go to finance various education programs in the state.

Chiarenza was born in Pennsylvania and has been married to Marguerite for 17 years. Each has a grown son from a previous marriage.

Peter Chiarenza, who works as a technician at a hospital in Palm Springs, said he was not surprised that his father planned to continue working, despite his newfound wealth. “That’s just the type of man he is. He loves his work and that’s what makes him happy,” he said.

In fact, Peter’s father said Monday that he still had to ask permission to miss a day of work so he could drive to Ventura to turn in the winning ticket.

“I called my boss and asked him if I could take the day off, and when I told him why, he said: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” Chiarenza said.

He may need another day off when the first of 20 annual checks for $1,859,040--after taxes--is delivered to his Lompoc home in three weeks, Chiarenza said.

“It’s going to take a little time to recover from this,” he said. “I’m glad I’ve got a strong heart.”