Larry Charles Brewer died on May 16, 2025. He was 83. Obituary here.
Larry is survived by his wife Diana, daughter Jenni and son Tom (photo below) and five grandchildren.
When Lonnie met Larry: I met Larry in the fall of 1959 when we started college in Rolla, Missouri, at what was then called the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now Missouri University of Science and Technology).
We were both from the Kansas City area, but did not know each other until connecting in Rolla. He was a graduate of North Kansas City High School, and I had gone to Van Horn.
The genesis of what became a 65-year friendship was that we both pledged…
Sigma Nu Fraternity: We moved into the Sigma Nu fraternity house which was populated by an eclectic mix of jocks, nerds and characters. The common denominator was that we were all studying some form of engineering, and the curriculum was brutal (needed 156 hours to graduate, including the mandatory ROTC).
I made fast friends with Larry and his three NKC classmates who also pledged Sigma Nu – David Woerner, Bob Moxham and Jerry Britton. The bonding was natural since we jointly suffered the indignities of pledge life – cleaning rooms, staffing the kitchen and dining room, tending bar at the parties, etc. And of course, Hell Week (as then practiced).
There was a lot of study and not much social life. Part of this was caused by the makeup of the student body – 3,000 boys and 30 girls (so, no sororities). Weekends often meant travel to “where the girls are.”
Fraternity life filled in the gaps. Bridge in the card room. We were one of the top fraternities in intramural sports. We also had a strong contingent of varsity athletes. Another desirable Sigma Nu feature was a deserved reputation for some of the best parties. There were six party weekends a year when coeds invaded Rolla. With so few opportunities, a lot was packed into those weekends.
When Larry and I experienced our first party weekend in 1959, it happened to coincide with the release of the best party song of all time: “Shout” by the Isley Brothers. In many ways (but not all), our parties were like the ones seen in the 1978 movie Animal House, including the toga party with the band playing “Shout.” Below, two brothers at our fraternity house – before jumping up to dance like John Belushi. To continue the parallels with the movie, we were placed on social probation for a semester.
In the photo below (from our sophomore year), Larry is in the first row (left, hand on head) and I’m on the last row, fourth from right.
During the Thanksgiving break in our sophomore year, Larry threw a party at his parents’ home in Kanas City. He needed a date. I fixed him up with my Van Horn friend…
Diana Sue Sullivan: Diana and I went to different grade schools but knew each other because her uncle Curt Jones lived across the street. Curt owned Curt’s Market, just two doors down the street. Di’s mother (Mary Sullivan, nee Jones) worked for her brother at the market, and so Di was often at Curt’s home. We had many conversations in anticipation of being 8th graders at Northeast Junior, and by the luck of the draw, ended up in the same common learnings and math classes.
We became part of the same social circle. My first date was with her best friend, Shirley Maycock. Di dated Jay DeSimone, the kid who cut school with me in April of 1955 to see the first A’s game.
The next year, we entered as the first freshman class at the new Van Horn High School. We continued to be the best of friends. Lots of dancing at Teen Town. Di became a cheerleader. A pretty good four years as members of the Class of 1959.
After high school, Di attended Central Missouri in Warrensburg, while I headed for Rolla to MSM and Sigma Nu. In our sophomore year, I asked if she would like to go on a blind date with Larry Brewer. She said yes, they had a great time and quickly became an item. She (and many of her Warrensburg pals, including my first wife Sharon) started going to Rolla for party weekends, including St. Patrick’s Day (patron saint of engineers) and Greek Week (with its own games). It was a blast.
Di and Larry dated on and off for the next 12 (not a typo) years. After that testing and retesting, they married, and this past year celebrated 53 years together (65 if you count those first 12). Mostly, they thanked me for introducing them.
Larry, Rolla and IBM: Larry had mixed results in his early years at Rolla, so he took a break to serve his country in the Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserves as a Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.
After his time in the service, Larry returned to Rolla to finish college. This break in his education generated at least two salutary benefits:
More Sigma Nu: Larry rejoined Sigma Nu fraternity life and added a whole new set of fraternity brothers. His overlap with us in the early 1960s and a younger group in the mid-1960s gave Larry a large set of friends who he kept in touch with the rest of his life. More on this subject below in “Sigma Nu Reunions.”
Computer Guy: Computer science was just getting started when we came to Rolla in 1959. But when Larry came back in the mid-1960s, the specialty had exploded. Larry found a home in this world and was part of one of the first classes to graduate with a degree in computer science.
Larry spent most of his professional career with IBM, beginning with Selectric typewriter service and finishing with mainframe implementation.
Larry and Diana; Lonnie and Rita: When Rita and I married in 1981, Larry and Di were living in Rochester (NY) where Larry was working for IBM. But that status luckily changed when IBM relocated Larry back to Kansas City in 1984.
We entered a wonderful phase of Larry and Di getting to know (and love) Rita. Dinners, day trips, Derby Day and 50s parties, the Ozarks, etc. We were often joined by Jim Graham and his partner Sandy Thompson, and we called ourselves the “Big Six.”
Larry’s son Tom recently reviewed Larry’s “journals,” an extensive set of memories Larry entered on his computer over the years. Here is how Tom summarized the entries regarding the Big Six:
“This is the story of ‘The Big Six’: Larry and Diana, Lonnie and Rita, Jim and Sandy—three couples who spent years together traveling, laughing, and celebrating life. Larry’s journals offer a vivid and heartfelt account of these enduring friendships. His reflections—scattered across decades—form a portrait of camaraderie, shared joy, world travel, and a mutual appreciation for the absurdities and sweetness of life.”
Spot on. There will be many examples in the photo sections below. There was one big hiccup…
Move to Arizona: In 2003, Diana announced to Larry that they were moving to Phoenix. Their daughter Jenni lived there and was pregnant with her first child. Grandma and Grandpa were gone (from KC, not from us).
That first year in Phoenix was bittersweet for the family. While enjoying the birth of their grandchild, they worried about their Westpoint-educated son Tom who was flying helicopters in Iraq. Rita and I were part of the email chain keeping friends and family up to date on Tom and the war. We all breathed a sigh of relief when Tom ended his tours in Iraq.
I have an email from Larry reciting items from his journal on the first few months in Arizona:
“May 30th: Just moved to Phoenix. Now this is a city that knows how to live !! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful. I’ve finally found my home. I love it here.”
Larry then had weekly entries as the temperature kept rising on its way to 115. His last entry in this phase:
“August 14: Freaking Phoenix. What kind of sick demented idiot would want to live here.”
Larry eventually acclimated to Phoenix, and he and Di (as we knew they would) developed a fun community of friends at Trilogy at Power Ranch.
But there was still some good news for us going forward. Rita and I had a warm place to visit in the winter. And we kept traveling with Larry and Di – eventually to five continents.
Sigma Nu Reunions: There were occasional Sigma Nu reunions in Rolla, and five from our 1959 pledge class made it to the 100th anniversary of our Gamma Xi chapter in 2003. Below, from left, Larry, Lonnie, Ken Pohlig, Bob Moxham and Jerry Britton.
The more regular events were mini-reunions of the brothers from the 1960s, and the organizer-in-chief was Larry. He kept track of everyone’s contact information and periodically sent out updated spreadsheets. His leadership kept the group in touch, and he organized many reunion weekends over the years. Below, Larry and I at one of those events.
Van Horn Reunions: Since three of the members of the Big Six were from the Van Horn Class of 1959, Larry was stuck with our class reunions. These included the big ones for the whole school (the 60th was in 2019), but more frequently, mini-reunions in Arizona. Shirley (Maycock) Nuss and her husband Gary and married classmates Phil and Janet (Pavola) Clemens were in Tucson. So, we often met in one of those cities or got together for lunch in Florence, a half-way point between Tucson and Phoenix.
From 2023, starting at the lower left and going clockwise, Gary Nuss, Shirley (Maycock) Nuss (my first date), Diana (Sullivan) Brewer, Janet (Pavola) Clemens, Phil Clemens, Larry, Lonnie and Rita (my last date).
Chiefs: Larry and Di never gave up their support for the Chiefs and have been well rewarded for that in recent years. Below, the four of us proudly wearing Super Bowl championship shirts.
Birthdays: The Big Six had a birthday tradition of celebrating the combined “girls” birthdays in winter and the “boys” in summer. This became trickier after the Brewers moved to Phoenix in 2003. I sent an email then with a suggestion:
“Just so there is no misunderstanding, a move to another part of the world does not mean that boys’ and girls’ birthdays become an exchange of cards in the mail rather than in person. My proposal: Boys’ birthdays to be jointly celebrated in Kansas City at Frankie’s on the Plaza on Wednesday evening, Oct. 8 and girls’ birthdays in Mexico on Sunday evening, Nov. 23. This also puts the boys’ celebration closer to the birthday for Jim who has unselfishly for years agreed to celebrate early with us August guys. Do I hear any objections? thanks? alternatives?”
When Rita threw a 50th birthday party for me in 1991, she had several speakers roast me. Larry was the spokesman for the college years and recorded this memory in his journal: “It was a true bash – good times, good people, and a roast (Hollis was classic). Lonnie was the 119-pound boxing champion (lost 8 pounds by eating Jell-O – AND Lonnie does not have 8 pounds to lose – ha).”
Larry then coaxed me to join him in pretending to jump rope as if we were back in training for boxing.
Larry’s details were a little off, but close enough. I did lose a lot of weight (19 pounds) to fill the lowest weight class for the school’s intramural boxing matches. Sigma Nu wanted to fill all the weight classes to increase the chance of winning the team trophy – intramurals were very competitive at the school. So, several of us lost a potentially dangerous amount of weight for the “good of the fraternity.” But contrary to Larry’s memory, I did not win. I got second place points after losing to the only other boxer who made the weight class. We were both so weak from dieting that we could not hurt each other in the 3-round match. The big goal was achieved – Sigma Nu won the team trophy.
Di, Larry and I turned 70 in 2011 and celebrated with a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands.
And in 2016, we hit 75 and partied (not as hard as we once did) in Cabo San Lucas.
Willie: I thought the family did an excellent job of describing Larry in his obituary: Sharp mind, strong work ethic, funny and loyal. He prized honesty, found meaning in the ordinary, and was always ready with a dry remark and a thoughtful word.
I’d like to add to that list his role as chief prankster. My favorite example is Willie. This will be a short version of the story. The full details are in Hot Stove #157.
In 1992, Rita and I acquired a life-size (3-feet) inflatable king penguin. We can’t remember why. With help from granddaughters, he was named Willie.
Sometime in the late 1990s, Willie moved from the first floor to a corner in a spare bedroom upstairs. One day, we got a note in the mail and some photos of Willie in unknown locations. We dashed upstairs. Willie had been kidnapped! We continued to receive photos in the mail for months. Willie on a cruise. On the beach. In the mountains. In a recycling bin.
From the beginning we suspected Larry, possibly conspiring with my son Brian. But all we got were denials.
As 1999 turned to 2000, Rita and I hosted New Year’s Eve at our home for four other couples, including Di and Larry. The doorbell rang. Rita answered. She shouted out “Willie’s home!” No one was with Willie, but he had a note to tell us he had a good time on his travels. And if we did not treat him right, he would leave again, bragging that he had friends in high and low places.
Years went by. Denials continued. But Rita and I knew, and eventually the grinning Larry and Di admitted their crime. Brian continued to deny for a while but ultimately told us how he sneaked Willie out of the house while the family was enjoying our pool on a Sunday afternoon.
Fun in the United States: We did a lot together close to home in Kansas City (and later, Arizona).
And around the country. Museums. Presidential libraries. Yosemite. Sedona. Below, during a road trip from Nashville to Little Rock, a stop in Memphis at Sun Studios (original recording home of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins).
Way too many places and events to fully cover, but here are some highlights…
Wine Country: While in the U.S. or out of the country, we sought out the local wineries. Most of the trips made specifically for wine tasting were in California – Napa, Sonoma and Santa Barbara. Below, at Sebastiani (Sonoma), the two on the right are Sandy Thompson and Jim Graham, the other couple of the Big Six.
In Oregon, we toured as the “Grape Eight,” the Big Six plus Mary and Rich Ellison (the two directly behind me). The Ellisons later hosted the Big Six at their oceanside home in St. Simons, Georgia.
New York: In a Big Six trip to New York, we took a construction elevator up to about the 50th floor of a hotel being built by my New York client. Jim Graham was not a fan of heights, and here we were with just the skeleton of a building and no outside walls. We returned safely to ground. When completed, the building became the W Hotel on Times Square.
On another trip, three of us channeled Steve Martin dancing as King Tut on Times Square.
Tom Brewer issued this report from Larry’s journal on one of our Broadway binges in New York:
They saw a remarkable lineup of shows including Miss Saigon (“the helicopter was IMPRESSIVE”), Gypsy starring Tyne Daly, Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, and Forever Plaid, which Larry called “a take-off on Ed Sullivan’s Variety Hour… IT was Wonderful.” The group visited the Metropolitan Museum, the Central Park Zoo, and Ellis Island. Mornings were a delight: “Bagels and Coffee each morning……. wonderful time,” and the experience was perfectly captured in Lonnie’s classic line after buying a few groceries: “everything costs $8,000.”
Telluride Film Festival: At the urging of festival regulars Marsha Murphy and Bob Morantz, Rita and I attended our first Telluride Film Festival in 2011. We flew into Durango and were picked up by Larry and Di who were driving in from Phoenix. Below, showing off our festival passes: Marsha, Larry, Diana, Lonnie and Bob (Rita was taking the photo).
When Tom Brewer reviewed Larry’s journal, he found mention of an especially poignant trip to Telluride in 2012. Rita had undergone breast cancer surgery and was due to start chemotherapy. With the approval of her oncologist, Rita delayed treatment in keeping with her mantra of “Eat dessert first.” We attended the festival, and Larry reported in his journal that the time was filled with crisp mountain air, film screenings, spectacular scenery and a star-sighting of Laura Linney. He wrote that he and Diana saw 14 films in four days.
There is a lot of standing in line at Telluride, and Labor Day Weekend can be cold, hot and/or rainy. Here’s Rita with Larry who was prepared for all weather conditions.
Alaska: In 2006, the Big Six plus Gary and Shirley Nuss cruised Alaska.
International Travel: Have passports, will travel.
Cruises took us to many ports in Central America, the Caribbean, the Baltic (Scandinavia and St. Petersburg), Eastern Europe (Bucharest to Budapest) and the Mediterranean.
Some other highlights…
Mexico: Our city of choice in Mexico was Puerto Vallarta. We went at least eight times with Larry and Di (from 1998 to 2007), and Jim and Sandy joined us on four of those trips.
Larry was a leader in getting people to the dance floor. He was especially good at doing the Twist. He was also willing to go to the stage as one of the “Village Idiots” to participate in YMCA. Below, dancing with Rita in Puerto Vallarta after both participants were well-fueled with margaritas.
Greece, Turkey and Egypt: This 1992 trip was quite the combo, touching on three continents. We cruised from Athens (Europe) to several ports in the Greek isles plus a stop in Turkey to see the ancient ruins at Ephesus (Asia). Then a post-cruise trip to Egypt to see the Pyramids (Africa).
Our most memorable stop on the cruise was Santorini, a lovely volcanic island topped by a crater that is partially underwater, allowing ships to cruise and anchor inside the crater. Visitors are then tendered to the shore where they can reach the towns in the hills by walking, riding donkeys or taking the tram. We opted for donkeys, and Rita’s was not cooperative, continually ramming her leg against the wall (her repeated screams were captured on video taken by Larry).
After we were done touring, we went back down on the tram (no more donkey for Rita). We were so enjoying the ambience inside the crater that we stayed on the wharf until the last tender went to the ship. A friendly dog joined us at the table. Here is how Larry described that day in his journal (the CAPS and !!!! are his):
“Possibly the BEST afternoon/evening EVER…You need to see the video ‘Donkey Ride from Hell’ for Rita…[sat dockside drinking] wine/cheese/olives/beer…GREAT companionship and even our own wharf side dog!!!!”
Below, after seeing the ruins at Ephesus, we drank some Turkish beer before heading back to our ship.
After the cruise, we headed to Egypt for the Pyramids, Valley of the Kings and Luxor.
Ireland/London/Paris: In 1997, we took a 16-day trip to Ireland, London and Paris. Early in the Ireland leg of the trip, we joined a packed crowd in a pub to watch the funeral of Princess Di.
Below, at dinner in the Temple Bar area of Dublin.
And, we’ll always have Paris.
Italy: The Big Six did a big tour of Italy in 1996. Rita and I returned with Di and Larry in 2010 for stays in Venice, Milan and Cinque Terre.
Rita’s photo of me taking a photo of Larry and Di at the Milan Cathedral.
On the hiking trail between two of the five cities of Cinque Terre.
Prague: Di and Larry had long wanted to go to Prague, and the four of us booked a trip in 2015. A health issue intervened, and they could not join us – in person. But Larry sent us life-sized head shots so they could virtually tour Prague with us. Below, Larry with the Prague Castle in the background.
Diana and Rita in Old Town.
After Prague, we took a cruise on the Danube, and Di and Larry went along. In their stateroom…
For more, see “Larry and Diana’s Excellent Virtual Adventure to Prague” by clicking here.
Peru: Rita and I shared Machu Picchu with Di and Larry in 2004.
Galapagos Islands: In 2007, we joined the animals made famous by Charles Darwin. For the full travelogue on this trip, click here.
The blue-footed booby was one of the favorites.
At the beach on one of the islands.
“Good times, good people,” Larry often wrote in his journal. Amen to that.
RIP Brother Brewer.
