Larry was in kindergarten in Lafayette before becoming my classmate from first grade on.  Our parents became friends and the two families often spent time together even meeting at the same location on vacations – Biloxi, Mississippi; Cumberland Lake and Mammoth Cave in Kentucky; and The Tetons in Wyoming.  What was really fun was going to the Edstrom’s second home on Lake Freeman and learning to water ski in the summer and ice skate in winter.   It is too bad WLHS didn’t have a swim team back then as Larry was an excellent swimmer and water skier.  He rode a Vespa motor scooter to school but also was allowed to drive his dad’s karmann ghia sports car and the best place to have some fun with it was on the roller coaster hills that bordered one side of the Purdue stadium.  He allowed me a turn (well, only one time!) at the wheel to feel the thrill of bottoming out driving as fast as I dared over the hills.   We attended several dances together at the high school – specifically because neither of us had a steady person to date.  After high school Larry went to Bradley University in Illinois then on to the Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix, AZ.  During the time he was in Phoenix, my husband and I were also living there where I was teaching seventh grade and Larry came over to visit us.  For our 10th high school reunion my husband wasn’t able to join me so Larry and I went together.  

He later moved to Costa Rica for his first job with a bank as, I think, an auditing manager.  I’m not sure where else he was assigned by the bank but he moved up in the management ranks and became a VP of Citi Bank in Hong Kong.  He was married to a Australian woman who had two children.  I wasn’t in touch with him for several years until he was sent to the cancer center in Houston for treatment.   I can remember him telling me “I feel perfectly normal”.   However, after several visits to the cancer center, he died at age 38.  I hope all of you have or had a friend you grew up with like I did.   

Sandy Lehman Bailey