Lawrence "Larry" Henkel

Service Details

A Memorial Mass, celebrating Larry’s life, will be held at 11:00 a.m., in St. Lucy Catholic Church, 3101 Drexel Ave., on Tuesday, May 30^th with Fr. Javier Guativa officiating. Relatives and friends are invited to meet with the family from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the Mass. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery.   In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the family or to Hospice House, who were incredible to Larry and have our thanks.

Larry Henkel, 76, passed away at the Hospice House on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, just two days short of his 54^th wedding anniversary.

He was born in Racine, the son of the late Lawrence and Helen (nee: Jartz) Henkel, one of six children.  He didn’t have an easy childhood – a large part of it was spent helping his dad with his Progressive Dairy milk route and working on a family farm.  Larry was also an incredible athlete, finding time to play sports, including semi-pro football.  During his senior year at Park High School, he began working at Kewpees, flipping burgers.  (All throughout his life he made the best burgers!)  Later, he dropped out of school and took a full-time job at Dumore Corporation.

Although Larry knew Suzette Mura during their high school days, the both became close friends while they worked at Dumore.  This friendship blossomed into a deep relationship and they eventually married on May 25, 1963.  A year later their son David was born and two years after that Douglas was born.  It would take an additional eight years for their daughter, Heather, to arrive.

Larry went from sweeping floors at Dumore to managing the tool locker and eventually becoming a manufacturing engineer.  In 1980, he decided to stretch his legs and moved the family from Racine up to Sun Prairie, WI to pursue a new job in manufacturing engineering.  The family would eventually move to Watertown, NY and Mt. Juliet, TN, finally returning back to Racine in the mid-1980’s.  Larry’s hard work ethic fostered his desire to better himself, and throughout his career he took many courses and received certifications in his field, eventually becoming vice president of manufacturing at Precise Corp and a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).  He would eventually take a job back with Dumore when they moved to Mauston, WI.  Larry and Suzette did return to Racine a few years later, where he would retire after a couple of years working with Ametek.

A year after retiring he took a job with the Durham bus company and became a bus driver for handicapped kids.  He loved the job, getting to know each kid on his route.  When he would retire a second time, the parents and bus company wanted him to stay on another year as he treated each kid with great care and respect.

Larry was a loving husband and father, known for his big heart and bear hugs. He enjoyed many weekends with their best friends Jenine and Jerry, going to Packer games and rooting for the Wisconsin Badgers.  He and his wife enjoyed going to church and sitting with their group of friends in the back row at St. Lucy’s.  He was happiest cooking in the kitchen with his kids and sitting on their balcony listening to the birds sing while sipping a glass of wine (or his whiskey).  Larry was an incredibly hard worker, a man of integrity and of deep faith.  He will be missed tremendously by his family and by everyone who knew him.

He is survived by his wife Suzette; his three children, Dave, Doug (Barb), and Heather (Trent); two grandchildren, Trevor and Garrett; brother Tom (Nancy) Henkel, and brother-in-law Jack Christensen.  He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Charles and Donald, sisters LaVerne Christensen and Claire Vogelman.

A Memorial Mass, celebrating Larry’s life, will be held at 11:00 a.m., in St. Lucy Catholic Church, 3101 Drexel Ave., on Tuesday, May 30^th with Fr. Javier Guativa officiating. Relatives and friends are invited to meet with the family from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the Mass. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery.   In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the family or to Hospice House, who were incredible to Larry and have our thanks.