Larry Laverne Unruh

He grew up in Enid and later moved to South Haven, where he graduated from high school in 1956. He moved to Wichita in 1959. Larry attended the University of Houston and Wichita State University. In 1956 he joined the Army. After basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri he trained as a heavy maintenance equipment operator for the 89th Army Division. During the first 4 years of duty he served as an MP at Camp Carson, Colorado and then went to Fort Belvior, Virginia. Larry was honorably discharged in 1964.

Larry met Dorothy McGaugh through Dorothy’s brother, Cecil. They were married in Alva, Oklahoma in July of 1965 and had a daughter, Pamela Marie in March of the following year.

He started working for Boeing in 1957 as a sheet-metal mechanic. The last 20 years with Boeing he was in quality control inspection with the travel team where he did ground inspections and fiber optics boroscoping of the aircraft engines. While on the travel team, he filled up many passports by going to several countries like Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Germany, Italy, Salvador, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and many others. Even though all those travels seemed like they would be a vacation, he used his vacation time cutting wheat at his parents South Haven farm until they sold it in 1980. He retired from Boeing after 41 years in 2002.

Larry enjoyed attending New Spring church with his friends and he enjoyed watching all sports, whether it be Tiger Woods, KC Royals, KC Chiefs, KU Jayhawks, K-State Wildcats or his beloved WSU Shockers. He would visit his daughter in the Kansas City area often and they would take in either a Chiefs or Royals game. They had a tradition of attending the K-state versus KU football game and just to make it a little bit more fun, since she was a KU grad, he would make it more of a rival and wear all purple. He had season Wichita State basketball tickets for over 40 years and he rarely missed a game. After he retired, for years he took Pam to the WSU preseason tournament with the team. They went to the tournaments in Maui, Honolulu, the Virgin Islands, Orlando and Kansas City.

Larry moved to Versailles, Missouri in 2018 to be closer to his daughter and son-in-law, Terry. In 2022 he moved in with his daughter in Basehor, Kansas.

Larry was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Delano Unruh of Ark City, Kansas.

He is survived by his daughter, Pamela Unruh-Silvey and husband Terry of Basehor, Kansas and his brother, Lonnie Unruh of Amarillo, Texas.

A visitation will be held at Resthaven Mortuary, 11800 West Hwy 54 on Friday, September 26, 2025 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM with a funeral service to follow at 10:00 AM. A graveside service will immediately follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory in The Garden of Prayer. Light refreshments to follow graveside service in The Events Room at Resthaven Mortuary.