I will always have a smile when I think of Larry and his daughter Patty sitting in the middle of about 100 cadets at the United States Air Force Academy as I lectured the the group on land speed racing in a effort to invigorate the students to join the then-new joint racer/academy program.
Larry came dressed in his 300MPH Chapter finest, cutting as fine a figure as Chuck Yeager ever could with all his winter white hair.
Patty wore a Bonneville t-shirt decorated with the the car that earned Larry the right to wear the 200MPH Club colors. I introduced both as "land speed racing royalty" which made Larry and Patty laugh out loud to mask the tinge of embarrassment I gave them both by flipping on the limelight.
Afterwards, they were surrounded by cadets with probing, introspective questions, that Larry carefully and completely answered. Surely he was grand ambassador that day in my eyes and I was so very grateful for both jumping up, stepping in and helping out.
In the photo they stand in front of Wes Messick's "Radical Flyer" wagon just before we all climbed in and went cruising around the quad of the campus with Lt.Col Buckley and his cadets. Such great fun!