I worked with Larry Neff for many years on the Delaware & Hudson Railroad in Oneonta and Binghamton, NY. Larry was a very competent railroad clerk, and for a time, he took a company appointment as a trainer on a new computer system that the D&H was installing.


Larry told me there was a time when one of the older D&H yardmasters at Oneonta was intoxicated at the yard office and fell asleep. When Larry came to work, he tried to rouse the man, but to no avail. 


So, Larry first called the Train Dispatcher and notified him that the yardmaster had to go home sick. He then got on the radio/telephone and told all train movements to come to a safe halt in the yard and contacted an extra yardmaster working as a yard conductor to come to the yard office and take over. By doing this, he protected the yardmaster's job and brought in a replacement, so there was no lost time.


Larry could be quite a character. He was much different away from work and had a wry sense of humor. However, I think stress in the yard office set him off occasionally. But we understood each other; he never said a cross word to me.


Another good D&H clerk and Vietnam Veteran goes to his rest. 


I knew that Larry was older than I; he was in Vietnam in the early 1960s in the U.S. Army Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) in the early 1960s. Larry told me he worked in General William Westmoreland's communications headquarters in Saigon, but long before, the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident drew the U.S. deeper into the war. Larry once told me he had a motorbike that he would go sightseeing on, but he did get shot at once or twice.


Godspeed, old friend.

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home

Lawrence Neff

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OBITUARY

Lawrence Neff

19 November, 1940 – 10 June, 2022

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home

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