Eleanor and Heath Larry stand beside their Bentley at the Ballentrae condominium in the late 1970s.
Photo provided
By Ron Hayes
GULF STREAM — Heath and Eleanor Larry were married for 73 years.
She died on Nov. 20, at 95.
He died on Dec. 18, exactly four weeks later, at 97.
“He always wanted to live to be 100,” his son, Dennis Larry, recalled recently. “He’d say to me, ‘I’m 100, aren’t I?’ So I decided to tell him he was 100. Why not? He died thinking he was 100.”
R. Heath Larry was born Feb. 24, 1914, in Huntington, Penn. In 1934, he graduated with honors from Grove City College, where he met his wife.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh Law School, again with honors, Mr. Larry went to work for U.S. Steel, where he remained for 40 year, retiring in 1977.
Mr. Larry then served four years as president of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., before retiring to Delray Beach.
“He was a fighter,” his son said, “and in his earlier years he had some tough negotiations with the steel and coal industry unions, but he had a heart of gold.”
In 1972, the couple moved into the Penthouse Towers in Highland Beach, where they spent the winters until 1980, when they became one of the early residents of the Ballentrae condo in Gulf Stream, where Mr. Larry served as both a president and a member of the board.
Tom Hill, the condominium’s manager, arrived at the same time.
“Mr. Larry was very quiet and unassuming,” Hill recalled, “but when he was involved he was very engaging and knowledgeable and helpful.
He was always pleasant to the employees and an asset to the community.”
Locally, he was also active in the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, where he was an elder and also served terms on the denomination’s session, its national governing body.
He served on the board of Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, where two private suites bear his name.
In addition to his son, Dennis, Mr. Larry is survived by two other sons, David and Dick; four grandchildren, Demian, Christa, Kate and Keith; and by two great-grandchildren, Emma and Grant.
A small family service will be held in the garden of the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach at a later date.
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