My military career began at the age of 17. I am proud to have served in the United States Army for 22 years. Over the course of my service, I was deployed to Germany twice, and South Korea. Serving my fellow servicemen, servicewomen, and the civilians on base was the most enjoyable part of my military service. Throughout the years of my service, I received several awards such as; Army Achievement medal (2x), Army Commendation Medal (2x), Army Service ribbon seven-time recipient, Meritorious Service Medal, NCO Professional Development ribbon level 3, and the National defense service medal (2x).
As a civilian, I continued to work to support our military for 20 more years, as a supervisor for Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital (BJACH) food service. I have been retired since 2016, but I’m still an active church member as well as volunteering in the community.
God blessed me with my wonderful supportive wife of 50 plus years, Patricia. Patricia also supported our military as an RN working at the Army hospitals at each of our duty station locations for 34 years. She also served as the health promotion nurse for the last few years before retiring in 2016. We have three children, a daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, and two grand kitties. All three of our children serve the community through being educators—together they have 50 years of teaching experience.
Our eldest, Edwin is a disabled veteran and has been in education for 22 years. His wife Carmelitha is an accountant in the water systems industry. Patrina, our middle child, is going into 
her 23rd year of teaching. She has taught at both secondary and elementary levels. She is a 7-year breast cancer survivor. Alyssa is entering into her 8th year as an elementary school teacher and has two fat and happy cats that we love to call our grand kitties. Unfortunately, none of our family members are eligible as donor candidates.
In 2020, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease associated with diabetes and hypertension. Over a three-year period, my condition deteriorated to end stage renal disease stage five. Up until now I had been fortunate to have few physical limitations despite being on home peritoneal dialysis since 2023. Recently, after going through severe peritonitis, I will not be able to do home peritoneal dialysis. Instead, I now must go into the center three days a week to receive hemodialysis.
Unfortunately, it can take up to 8 years to receive a deceased kidney transplant. Our God Son volunteered to be a living donor candidate and was initially accepted to be in the paired donation program. At this time, he is no longer eligible to be a donor.
I enjoyed working with the youth of our church. I have since had to pull back on being able to work with them as much as I would like to. On a similar note, my wife and I used to enjoy bowling together on a weekly basis, however, due to restrictions from my nephrologist, we are no longer able to continue at this time. Being able to volunteer in the community again at places like our local Helping Hands center is something that I look forward to being able to resume. I also enjoy volunteering to coordinate and cook for local church groups, community groups, and ministry events and would like to continue doing so for as long as possible.
For medically cleared donors, giving the gift of life through living kidney donation has been proven to be very safe. DOVE will assist all prospective donors throughout the process and make sure they do not incur any out-of-pocket expenses related to the evaluation or surgery. A healthy person can live a normal life with one kidney and save Larry’s life with the other!
Your support, whether through spreading the word on social media or considering becoming a donor, can make a profound impact on his life and the life of his family!
Please click on the link below if you would like to learn more OR call (551) 233-1611