Larry attended primary and secondary school in Grand Island and after graduating from Grand Island High School went on to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, finishing his studies in 1968.
Larry loved the outdoors. From a young age, Larry spent whatever free time he had outdoors, walking the open spaces of Nebraska near Grand Island. His first job and one which he held throughout his years at home was with the Grand Island Municipal Golf course, where he also spent a good deal of his free time, golf being one of his great loves.
After graduation he served five months with the U.S. Army at Fort Lewis, Washington, before leaving with a medical discharge. He then spent several years traveling and served a year with the Peace Corps in the Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, before he headed west to California, working at both Stanford Research Institute and the Stanford Sleep Lab, where he worked with the authority on sleep research, Dr. William C. Dement. In 1976 he headed to the Monterey Peninsula, where he would spend the rest of his life.
It was here he met and became good friends with his neighbor across Fountain Avenue in Pacific Grove, Peggy Goering, another transplant from the Midwest, in fact from Kansas, his home state neighbor. Their friendship blossomed into deep affection, and they married in May, 1981, in Lehigh, Kansas. They were soon the parents of a daughter, Rachel, followed by two sons, Matthew, and Peter.
Larry worked for a time for the Pebble Beach Corporation, first in the pro shop and then as a groundskeeper on Spyglass Hill before moving on to work for the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier. He did this until his retirement in 2014.
Larry’s love and passion for art pervaded his life as well as that of his children. He was the master Halloween costume fashioner and also worked well with papier-maché. One particular creation of his in that genre was that of the crocodile for his daughter’s Peter Pan production, which lived on to be utilized again and again in other school productions.
The family’s vacations were primarily summer trips to visit family in Kansas and Nebraska. These were drive-through-the-night affairs, and by 1988 the car contained three children, so Peggy and Larry had to be creative to keep the children occupied for that distance. Breaks from the continuous driving consisted of stopping at parks along the way for the children to play and share a picnic meal (Driving through the night allowed for making good time and progress while the kids were asleep!) It was convenient that the two home places were relatively close, geographically.
Other favorite family adventures were camping out, which exemplified Larry’s love of the outdoors, which he was able to inculcate in his children. Often this meant going no further than Big Sur for fun in the water, among the trees, grilling over the camp stove and, of course, tenting. Everyone loved these camping adventures. And they offered Larry the opportunity to point out creatures of every sort, and, particularly, birds (Oh my, did he love birds!)
Nature demonstrated Larry’s spiritual side. He was not an intensely religious or pious man, but he communed intuitively with animals and nature. His love for the outdoors as well as his love of art may have been borne from his struggle with dyslexia, for which he was never treated, and, as expressing himself in words was always difficult for him, he turned to nature. He did talk to the animals.
So he likely would not have chosen to attend a church—though both he and Peggy were raised in the church and for the sake of his children, he indulged his wife. Soon the Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula became their home church, and after retirement for both Larry and Peggy, it became a family of friends. He loved working with the property steward and was happy to take over that position for his last several years, which coincided well with his love of tending the outdoors. In this role he also worked closely with the church secretary, who found all sorts of jobs for him inside the church premises to exercise his skills as a handyman.
Outside of his work at the church Larry loved to spend time with his grandchildren, teaching them his love of art and the outdoors. You could always find him either building with Legos, reading, drawing, painting or helping his grandchildren with their art projects and imparting to them his love and knowledge of birds. And he enjoyed spending time on the golf course with family or friends.
Larry started having pain a month before his passing and died at home, surrounded by his family, on November 27 from a short yet aggressive bout of bone marrow cancer, diagnosed just two days before his passing. Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Lawrence and Minnie Kuck, and his sister, Janice Becker. He is survived and dearly missed by his wife Peggy, daughter Rachel Napoli [Giovanni] of Petaluma, sons Matthew, of Denver, and Peter Kuck {Tiffany], of Monterey, grandchildren Stella, Gianna, and Sophia Napoli, and Calvin Wesley Kuck, in addition to numerous nieces and nephews.
A celebration of life for Lawrence will be held Saturday, December 17, 2022 at 11:00 AM at Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula, 4590 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel, CA 93923.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.thepaulmortuary.com for the Kuck family.
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