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Larry grew up and graduated from Aurora, Colorado. After graduating he went to Sterling and attended A and P classes at Sterling North Eastern Jr. College graduating in 1974. It was also where he met his wife Sheryl.

His father-in-law ran the airport. He and his partner were Cessna dealers. Jack Taylor was also their chief pilot.

Larry worked there until 1984. He got his pilot license, his commercial rating, and his I.A. while he was there. He worked A and P as well as plowing snow, fixing lights, hangars, and general airport maintenance.

In 1984 he and his wife moved to Burlington, Colorado. They had just built a brand new airport, new hangars, new shop, and a new FBO building. He had a shop there and worked on airplanes. Having worked at the airport in Sterling he got familiar with plowing snow, fixing lights, general airport maintenance as well as the hangers. Having that experience made him a natural fit for him. He worked there for 23 years. In 2006 his contract was up and they never could come to an agreement so he gave them his 90-day notice at both the airport and their lease.

July 1st of 2006 he and his wife traveled the state for 30 days checking airports but they kept winding back here.

He likes to tell people he has a whole new appreciation for the guy that lives under the overpass in a box. For 30 days he and his wife were basically homeless with no home and no job during that period of time.

Then they came here and Dave Gordon who was the airport director at the time, told him if he could stick around for a year he had an operations position that would be open and he would like him to apply. for it.

He went to work for Larry and Terry at Professional Aircraft for 14 months. When the position opened up he applied for it and he got the job.

He has been on the airport staff for the city of Loveland since August 2007.

Before doing A&P work for Larry the snow removal of the hangars was the tenant’s responsibility. The winter of 2006 just before Christmas they had a huge snowstorm with 30″ of snow and wind. The hangars were plugged full of snow.

The hangar tenants would hire someone to come and move snow and dump it on these guys, then those guys would dump it on those guys. There was a lot of ill will among tenants. plus the airport had to hire Coulson Excavating because the airport didn’t have any equipment. They brought out 3 front end loaders and a couple of graders.

When he came on his 1st order of business was to get enough equipment that they could handle a snow event. It wasn’t like they could just go out and buy a bunch of equipment. They had to wait for funding from the FAA which was slow.

The first piece of equipment was their mainline truck with a broom and a plow. They just kept the broom on it and never used the blade.

The next piece of equipment was the loader with all of its implements. In addition, they got some surplus from DIA.

While they were trying to buy the loader and they were waiting on the FAA they needed the cooperation of the airport stakeholders to buy off on it. Larry told them if they let the airport get the equipment then they would take care of all the snow removal in the hangars even though all their leases state it is their responsibility. They now remove all the snow for the entire airport including the private area where Bohemian and Blue Ocean and now Aims are located. They are very appreciative of it.

He said they are our clients and we try to please them. They are the bread and butter of the airport.

He married Sheryl in 1974 and have 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren.

He hasn’t exercised his flying privileges for a couple of years but is proud of the fact that he has flown 26 or 28 models of airplanes.

He bought a Cessna 182 that he found in a barn in Western Kansas. It was from an estate and hadn’t been flown in a long time. He originally thought he would part it out but got to thinking since it only had 600 hours he would restore it. It took him a year to replace all the rubber in and get it approved by the FAA.

He and his wife flew it for a few years and then let a good friend buy into it. Eventually selling it to him when he moved here.

Now he has other interests. One year for his anniversary his wife bought him a fly rod and he fell in love with fly fishing. Now he and Larry Hallock together own a fly fishing boat.

Along with getting some fishing time in his son-in-law owns a large farm and calf operation and he loves driving trucks for them. He gets to see the grandkids that way also which is also a bonus.

His great uncle leased the old Buckley bombing range which was about 70 sections of grass so he and his brothers would go out in the spring and flank calves, dehorn then, brand them and the like.

He says this has been a great job and he has loved it and he is going to miss the people. Every day there is something new to do.

The team at the airport really takes pride in the limited finances they have to work with and how well they keep everything running.

Especially the group on the maintenance side. The operations keep the runway open and the lights burning. He is very proud of that.

He fully expects Jason to give him a call for a helping hand in plowing the snow and such.