Lawrence “Larry” Steward passed away peacefully in his sleep March 4 at the age of 73 after a long battle with ALS. He fought this awful disease with dignity, grace and compassion for others.
Larry was born prematurely on November 18, 1946, to Earl and Annabelle Steward during an immense blizzard that set the tone for the rest of his life. He was given the name “Corky” at birth by his father and has been called that by his family ever since.
He served in the Vietnam war from 1969 to 1972 during which time he was awarded several medals including the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Medal and was promoted to Specialist 5th Class (the equivalent rank of sergeant). Once in the army, he made the immediate transformation to Larry (or “Hey Maggot”) since no drill sergeant would call him “Corky.” During his time in Vietnam, he developed his lifelong passion for photography.
Larry married his first wife, Suzanne Hembree, in 1975 and remained married until her death from cancer in 1985. Larry and Suzanne had two children, which Larry thereafter raised as a single parent.
At CSU, he majored in journalism and technical communication. He became editor-in-chief of the Rocky Mountain Collegian. Larry graduated with his MBA from CU Boulder in 1989. Larry spent most of his career at his beloved Colorado State University in the student media department and teaching photo-journalism, digital photography, and business communication for the journalism and media communications department at CSU.
In 2002 Larry met Janet Lewis and they were married in August 2003 at the Danforth Chapel on CSU campus. In Janet, Larry found his soul-mate. The pair enjoyed many travel adventures all over the world but their favorite was Janet’s home country of South Africa. They loved hiking with their dogs Jack and Teddy. Larry loved fly fishing, salt-water fishing, biking and of course photography.
He is survived by his loving wife Janet; his son Jeffrey and wife Thuy, their daughter Annie; his daughter Jennifer and husband Jeremy, their son William; his step-son Alistair and wife Kimberly, their son Liam; his step-daughter Lee-Anne and her husband Rick, their son Tyler and daughter McKenna; and numerous nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews.
