Larry's early education was at the historic Henkhaus School nearby his home. In 1937, at age 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 69th Coast Artillery in Galveston, which maintained gun emplacements to protect that coastal area. Re-enlisting in 1939, he was transferred to the Pacific area, 19th Infantry Battalion at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. He was trained as a radio operator and assigned to the USS Haleakala, a ship utilized by the Army as an inter-island supply ship for the central Pacific area. He was aboard this ship, located at the Hickham Field dock in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked. His ship was not damaged, and for the next two years they transported ammunition between Maui, Hawaii, and Canton Island. Advancing to the rank of Staff Sergeant, he returned stateside in 1943 and served at duty stations in San Antonio, Brownsville and North Hudson Bay in Canada. His last duty station at the war's end was at Ft. McArthur in California, where he met his wife-to-be, Luella Clark, who was working at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach. They were married on July 15, 1945. Receiving his honorable discharge in September of that year, he joined the U.S. Postal Service, where he was employed both in California and later in Texas, until his retirement in 1973. Larry and Luella moved back to his boyhood home in New Ulm in 1974. He pursued his radio training by becoming a ham operator after leaving the Army, and was active in attending many reunions of the Pearl Harbor Survivor's association thoughout the years. After one of these reunions in Westfield, Pennsylvania he donated his ham radio station equipment to the Westfield Elementary School, where an amateur radio station was named in his honor. He made numerous contributions to his community, including a 20 acre nature park located between New Ulm and Frelsburg, Texas.