Author Archive for: larry

Larry passed peacefully, but unexpectedly, at home in 2016. He was 66 years of age. This is being updated in 2023, we still love and miss him.

Larry worked at Island Divers for the better part of the past decade as a dive guide and scuba instructor, and many of you will remember him and his passion for sharing the underwater world. He was a rock of patience and calm in our scuba diving family. Again and again our guests over the years commented on what a kind a talented ambassador to the underwater world he was. At the memorial service his family held one pastor said something that truly resonated with me personally: that is it not the passing of Larry that we grieve, but his absence.

We won’t ever get to see his smiling face again in the morning, or his sly joke, or his honest interest in what you have been doing, or see his latest great underwater picture, or again get to hear the happy words and smiles of divers he guided through the unique experience of scuba diving. We grieve, because we are going to miss the presence of our friend.

Larry grew up with a great family, spending his youth exploring the tiger-filled jungles of rural Connecticut, and the ocean known as Long Island Sound. Not quite a valedictorian, he still really enjoyed NWCH high school in Hartford, and graduated from Villanova University, with lots of great friends and a degree in Psychology.

Which prepared him perfectly for a career owning and managing a construction company for over 30 years in New York city. While visiting Hawaii in the mid 70s with some friends, one of whom was a PADI CD, he was thrown into the ocean with a full set of dive gear on (thanks Dave) and immediately fell victim to scuba’s greatest danger – a serious addiction to diving.

Added to a love of travel, he has managed to dive all over the place and has seen and marveled at the profound sights the ocean offers, the great white sharks of South Africa, the giant mantas of Komodo, the whale sharks of Thailand, the white dolphins and piranhas of the Amazonian rain forest, as well as the Humpback whales, spinner dolphins, monk seals, and octopi of Hawaii.

He began the road to diving professional in the early 90′s assisting instructors at Beach 9, Brooklyn, Friday nights at the Y, and under the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens (while still having a real job). A Master Scuba Diver Trainer since 2005 he has also worked in Phuket, Thailand, as well as NYC and now works with a great group of people at Island Divers Hawaii.