LARRY MYERS, FUHS TEACHER 1936-1972

Myers, Lawrence Alfred, 96, of Fullerton, passed away May 6, 2007. Survived by nephew, Ronald A. Myers.
Services 1:00PM, June 4, 2007 at 1st United Methodist.
Neptune Society
Published in the Orange County Register on 5/18/2007.
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(The Guest Book will remain online at O C Register.com until June 17, 2007.)
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Myers, Larry, one week shy of his 97th birthday, longtime Fullerton resident, Lawrence A. Myers died in a Santa Ana convalescent home on May 6th from complications of a hiatal hernia. He had taught 5 languages to generations of locals, not fully retiring until age 93, and was often seen in later years sporting about town on his electric scooter. He loved to regale interested parties with stories of his WWII service, his extensive foreign travels and his youth in Orange County. Larry was born on May 13, 1910 in Olive (now a part of north Orange), where he attended grammar school. Larry completed high school in Anaheim and attended college at U.C. Berkley (Spanish major, French minor). Larry married the former Alice Williamson in 1947, and the following year they moved into a house they bought on Jacaranda Place, where they would live the rest of their lives. They lived in Italy in 1953-54 when Larry won a Ford foundation study grant, and returned in the late '50s when he won a Fulbright Scholarship to study Russian (first in Indiana, then in the Soviet Union). He and his wife had no children, though they cared for various foster children over the years. Larry is survived by nephew, Ron of Los Angeles, and Don of Bear Lake, PA. A memorial service was held on Monday, June 4th at 1 p.m. at the Fullerton Methodist Church (Commonwealth and Pomona), with the Rev. Don Roe officiating. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Larry's name to Fullerton United Methodist Church.
Published in the Orange County Register from 6/3/2007 - 6/5/2007.
Notice • Guest Book (This guest book will remain online until 7/3/2007.)

May 31, 2007
Mike Johnson, FUHS '58, sent me the following newspaper article from the Fullerton Observer.

One week shy of his 97th birthday, longtime Fullerton resident Lawrence A. Myers died in a Santa Ana convalescent home on May 6th from complications of a hiatal hernia and resulting throat and blood infections.
He had taught 5 languages to generations of locals, not fully retiring until age 93, and was often seen in later years sporting about town on his electric scooter. He loved to regale friends with stories of his WWII service, his extensive foreign travels and his youth in Orange County.
Myers was born on May 13, 1910 in Olive (now a part of north Orange). One of his earliest memories of Fullerton was a visit to his grandmother's house - on East Chapman just off Harbor, across from today's McDonald's - on the day after Armistice Day, when locals celebrated the end of WWI by hanging the Kaiser in effigy on a float that wound through downtown. Larry completed high school in Anaheim and attended college at U.C. Berkeley.
At the express invitation of Superintendent Plummer (after whom the auditorium is named), he then began teaching Spanish at both Fullerton Union High School and Junior College, at a time during the Depression when college classes were still held on the high school campus.
In Feb. 1942, Myers joined the US Army and was trained as a Special Agent in the Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) in time to land, that fall, in Morocco as part of the Allied invasion of North Africa under Gen. Patton. Larry helped monitor communications and root out Nazi spies around the colony, often staying with local French and Arab residents, and soaking in many stories he told in his colorful account, "Hey, Nazis, I'm Coming For You" (self-published in 2004 via Amazon.com and based on over 450 V-mail letters sent home to his mother). He continued his CIC work in Italy in 1943, went to England to prepare for the invasion of France, and landed at Omaha Beach six days after D-Day. He coordinated with French and Belgian resistance fighters, interrogated prisoners and helped denazify local officials in Holland and Germany.
An Army training program in French language, based at the Sorbonne, prepared him for his return Stateside in late 1945, when he resumed teaching (French, Spanish, Italian and German) in Fullerton. Myers married the former Alice Williamson in 1947, and the following year they moved into a house they bought on Jacaranda Place. They lived in Italy in 1953-54 when Larry won a Ford Foundation study grant, and returned when he won a Fulbright Scholarship to study Russian (first in Indiana, then in the Soviet Union).
An avid nudist since the 1930s and a staunch Republican, Meyers financially supported a host of liberal & conservative causes, as well as many charities. He respected people for who they were, and enjoyed attending the same-gender-union ceremony of some neighbors in 2004.
Larry retired from full-time teaching in 1972 from Fullerton, in 1974 from St. Anthony's Long Beach, and in 1988 from adult-education night school. He then taught fellow senior citizens part-time as a volunteer at CSUF's Continuing Learning Experience (now OLLI) in Spanish, French and German until 1993.
After 40 years of marriage, Alice died after contracting an infection during a trip they had taken to the South Pacific. In 1994, Larry joined one of his surviving CIC comrades to travel to France for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. Still fitting into his WWII uniform, he proudly attended Memorial & Veterans Day ceremonies until last year, by which time he'd outlived the bank actuarial's estimate on his reverse mortgage by 8 years.
Larry is survived by nephews Ron and Donald. A memorial service will be held on Monday, June 4th at 1pm at the Methodist Church on Commonwealth and Pomona.
From the Fullerton Observer
http://www.fullertonobserver.com/artman/uploads/fojunesm.pdf page 16