Deceased May 5, 2019
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In Memory
The College has belatedly learned of the death of Larry Rayner on May 5, 2019.
He came to Amherst from Latin School of Chicago and was a history major and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon.
After Amherst, he served in the USAF for three years, assigned to Patrick Air Force Base in missile research and development at Cape Canaveral, now the Kennedy Space Center. During that time, he met his wife, a former Miss Brevard County and graduate of the University of Florida, where she was a cheerleader. They were married in 1958.
Larry obtained his pilot’s license in 1955 and flew his plane for business and pleasure for nearly 60 years.
The Rayners returned to Chicago; he entered the family business but soon moved to Northbrook, Ill., and started several businesses of his own in the forest product industry. He served as village trustee, as a member of the school board, as chair of the board of appeals and on the traffic and transportation committee. In addition, he belonged to a group called COWS (Citizens Opposed to Willow Road Super Highway)!
He was also an avid doubles tennis player at Middlefork Tennis Club.
Larry retired in 1998 and moved to Lake Geneva, Wis., where older generations of his family had lived. The Rayners also had a home in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas.
Survivors include wife Sally, daughter Martha and grandsons Alex and Eryk.
Hank Tulgan ’54