Following funeral services, a large crowd gathered at the Raymond Elks Club on Saturday, Nov. 12, where they celebrated and shared memories of the life of beloved area resident Larry Sinclair.
Well known throughout the Willapa Harbor area, Sinclair passed away unexpectedly of natural causes on Oct. 27 at the relatively young age of 54.
The Herald spoke recently with just a few of the innumerable people upon whom Sinclair made a lasting impression, both literally and figuratively, with the bone-crushing bear hugs he was known for giving and his by-all-accounts huge heart.
"I think there's probably nobody in the community who did not know who Larry Sinclair was," said South Bend's Ron Meek, whose family Sinclair often spent Thanksgivings with. "He rode his bike. You'd see Larry riding his bike in the rain ... If you needed something heavy moved or help with anything, Larry was the guy you'd call."
"He was just really happy to see you," Meek continued. "If you called him up to help you with anything, if he was helping someone else, he'd say no, but if he wasn't, it was a yes. And it wasn't how much are you going to pay me or how long is it going to take. It was just, yeah, come and get me."
Louie Runge, a former local golf course owner who now resides in California, had similar recollections of Sinclair, calling him a "community icon" who always "gave more than he got."
"He had a very pure soul. He had a great soul, and if you asked him, without even knowing him, to help you out with something, he'd say sure," Runge recalled.
Sinclair's friendly and giving nature belied the fact that friends described him as someone who faced a variety of challenges in life that might have gotten the better of a lesser person. He grew up in less-than-ideal family circumstances, by all accounts, and suffered vision problems exacerbated by an accident as a youngster in which he was struck by a log truck. Still, those things didn't prevent him from maintaining the most positive of outlooks and endearing himself to virtually everyone he met.
"That's the thing I'll remember about Larry forever. No matter what the situation, his outlook was always positive and upbeat," said Runge.
"It didn't make any difference what kind of job you had for him," recalled retired South Bend School Superintendent Mike Morris. "He didn't say no I don't want to do that or blah blah blah. He never asked how much he was going to get paid. He just did it."
"Larry never had a bad day," said Meek. "He probably had the least to work with in life, but he made the most of it. If you walked into a room and Larry was there, and you walked up to him and said, hey Larry, he'd recognize your voice - his vision wasn't great - and he'd just [say] Ron!!! And there'd be a bear hug."
"Never complained about anything," Meek further recollected of Sinclair, "Never."
Morris described Sinclair as loving to be in the middle of things, and among Sinclair's innumerable community involvements were his membership in several area clubs and organizations. In fact, Sinclair once spent two years as president of the Willapa Harbor Lions Club. Morris remembers Sinclair as being enormously proud of his work within the community.
One of Sinclair's closest friends, Raymond's Ron Brummel, remembered how he first encountered Sinclair. Sinclair was just 18 and had stumbled upon Brummel and other members of the now defunct local Jaycees organization as they made kielbasa in preparation for local festivities. An intrigued Sinclair eagerly asked Brummel how he could go about joining the group.
Brummel recalled how thrilled Sinclair had later been to attend a Jaycees convention in Federal Way, as Sinclair had until then never been further out of the area than Aberdeen.
"When we returned from the convention he was crying. He had tears in his eyes because nobody had done anything like that for him," said Brummell, going on to recount how in gratitude Sinclair had given Brummel's wife, Linda, a hug so powerful that it left bruises that took weeks to go away.
Indeed, Sinclair's natural strength is somewhat legendary.
"If you needed something moved from point A to point B, he was your guy, immensely strong," Brummel stated.
"He could pick up that couch and carry it up the stairs," contributed Meek, still in apparent amazement.
As previously mentioned, one of the biggest hurdles Sinclair faced in life was his poor vision. Brummel noted that Sinclair had spent two years at the Washington School for the Blind in Vancouver following the log truck accident as a youth, and friends observed he eventually underwent a handful of surgeries to improve his vision with only limited success. However, those who knew him well said they were sometimes shocked by the degree of perceptiveness he maintained regardless.
"He said, Ron, you've got that tarp on there wrong," Meek recalled. "The wind comes from the southwest. You need to turn it around and get the lee edge facing away from it or the wind's going to pick it up and rain's going to come under there. He didn't live up here. I'd lived up here for 15 years, and I never even considered that. He just came up with that. That's the kind of stuff he'd do."
Brummel recounted how Sinclair had instructed a mutual friend on how to fix his houseboat motor when it unexpectedly quit, leaving the pair stranded.
"People who don't think that he was aware really didn't know him," Brummel elaborated, mentioning also that while Sinclair's vision limited his enjoyment of books, he loved books on tape, especially Westerns, mysteries, and historical works.
Other interests included fishing, beer, sports, and classic rock.
"We'd play Name That Tune when we were in the car and he'd always beat me," Meek recounted.
Seemingly just about everyone in the Willapa Harbor community has their own personal Larry Sinclair story or stories to tell, ranging from the funny to the astounding, but perhaps what he'll most be remembered for is his personable nature and absolute and unconditional friendliness.
"Larry was Larry, and he was one of kind almost, and not many of us can say that. He was a gentle soul," reflected Runge.
Morris expressed how he remains amazed at how everyone in the community seemed to know or be involved with Larry in some way.
"Larry was family to everybody and everybody was family to Larry," said Morris. "He had a big heart and a big laugh and just a willingness to do stuff, to help whether it was community or friends ... I always loved his hellos ... It just always brought a smile to your face."
"A friend who was there in times of need," Meek reflected wistfully of Sinclair. "Anytime you needed him, he was there."
Brummel remembered how if Sinclair went into virtually any local establishment he knew everybody who happened to come in on a first-name basis.
"If he ran for mayor of Raymond, he'd get elected hands down," said Brummel. "And that's not because he'd be the best guy for the job, it's just that there is nobody who is liked as well as Larry. There is nobody in Raymond that people think more highly of then him."
"My son, Chris Brummel, may have said it best," the elder Brummel concluded. "He said, 'He's the most human person I have ever met'."
A Friends of Larry Sinclair fund has been set up at Raymond Federal Bank, and there are plans to potentially establish a scholarship in his name.
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