Lawrence S. Linder, 73, passed away peacefully in his sleep on January 7, 2024, at his home in Cromwell, Connecticut.Born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1950 to the late Alfred and Agnes (Golden) Linder, Larry lived a life that always had room for hard work, a good laugh, an intellectual curiosity (and its cousin, some well-placed cynicism) and, above all else, a love and devotion to his family.After briefly residing in the Bronx, Larry's family pursued the suburban dream of many postwar New Yorkers, leaving the city for the small Connecticut coastal town of Milford. There Larry experienced the quintessential childhood of the 1950s and early 1960s, complete with backyard barbecues, baseball games and, his favorite childhood pastime, swimming in virtually any body of water he could find, from Milford's famed Gulf Beach to his favorite lakes and pools run by the local YMCA, where he spent most of his time and, to his final days, shared his fondest memories.As youth gave way to adolescence, Larry was a two-sport varsity athlete at Milford High School, excelling on both sides of the line of scrimmage in football, while competing in all of the throwing competitions for track and field in the spring. When not participating in sports, he learned the value of working - and perfecting the underrated lime rickey soft drink - as a member of the Carrols Hamburgers kitchen team. And as he turned 18, as many did in Southern Connecticut in the late 1960s, there was also the occasional jaunt across the New York State border for more sophisticated libations (okay, the cheapest beer one could get on a Carrols Hamburgers paycheck).After high school, Larry started on two adventures. The first was a journey from apprenticeship to eventually becoming one of the more admired lithographers in the New England printing industry, operating enormous Heidelberg four and six-color printing presses resembling large Union-Pacific locomotives (both in sheer mass and environmental friendliness). Despite the fearsome look and sound of these machines, their output would bring lots of joy to Larry's second adventure - fatherhood. Over the years he would bring home copies of children's books, maps and, to the ultimate bragging rights of his son in the late 1970s, the official Kiss Unmasked songbook. In the ensuing years, Larry's commitment to hard work was driven by a desire to emulate his own parents and provide as best as he could for his two children. After more than 40 years in the industry, which shrunk exponentially yet never shook him as a sought-after craftsman, Larry retired in 2004.A man of many interests, Larry's elicited both inspiration to his family, as well as more than a little teasing from them. In no particular order, he loved the New York Yankees, especially his hero, Mickey Mantle (whose namesake glove he kept from childhood all the way into middle age retirement from beer league softball); crossword puzzles as fast as bookstores could sell in compendium form (creating what was the neatest block handwriting on record); an equally voracious appetite for reading, with the latest Elmore Leonard and Clive Cussler always topping his nightstand every summer; an underrated reputation for film, be it classic Stanley Kubrick or whatever popcorn kid flick his children insisted on seeing; any kind of beach, provided it allowed him to worship the sun and attain a San Tropez tan in seemingly minutes; long hot baths after any strenuous activity (or any activity); licorice, much to the dismay of a long line of frustrated dentists; and jokes. Lots of jokes. Funny ones. Meh-inducing ones. Ones that might even make for nervous laughter and quick segues to other topics. Like the Yankees.Larry is survived by his children: daughter Holly Linder and her fiancée, Dennis Gehring of Cromwell, Connecticut, and son Jay Linder and daughter-in-law Andryea (Gladney) Linder of New York City; his grandchildren, Wiley and Maris Linder of New York City; his brother, Gil Linder and sister-in-law Harriet Gold Linder, of Yardley, Pennsylvania; and his nephews, Jeremy Linder of Stamford, Connecticut and Ethan Linder of New York City.In lieu of flowers, his family suggests a contribution to the place that kept Larry forever young, the Woodruff Family YMCA of Milford, Connecticut, at https://cccymca.org/locations/woodruff/.
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