Dave Matuszak

Very sorry to hear it. Larry and I reconnected on the phone a couple of years ago. I lost completed track of him and when he didn't show to our 50th reunion, I finally found a way to connect and did. We spent a great deal of time together at TCHS and for a few years after graduating. Thanksgiving day tackle football at the high school for a number of years. (His favorite passing routes were crossing routes.) For a couple of years, I often rode along with him in Jim Stuart's old 1964 Plymouth Valient (famous slant-6 engine and push-button transmission). Larry didn't have a car and Jim agreed to drive him back to his dorm at UCLA on Sunday nights. I knew Larry to be outspoken, intelligent, opinionated. You always knew where you stood with him. (I liked that about him.) When I reconnected decades later we met at Clearman's Galley (the new version of the old "Boat.") I expected to hear that he had used his UCLA degree to solve some problem of the world, or had entered politics. Instead, I found he had matured into a very humble, quiet, and introspective man who had chosen to settle into a very inconspicuous small-town lifestyle. As I recall, he made a career as an HVAC repairman. Larry explained that he was living in the house 2-doors down from the house he grew up in. (Was Blackley the name of the street?) He had married Debbie, a girl he met in the neighborhood who alsp went to TCHS. He had a couple of kids and grandkids and just simply enjoyed being a family man, perfectly content to live out his days in total obscurity. My condolences to his sister, Judy, Debbie, and his family. RIP, old friend…