By now many of you have heard the news that Larry passed away on Sunday Feb 24, 2008. At this moment I am in the Minneapolis airport en route to Salem, Oregon, the site of tomorrow morning's memorial service for Larry (which, by the way, I am told will be pretty unorthodox--should we be surprised? :)). Progress on the book has been very slow (for many reasons, first & foremost the ongoing medical situation of our youngest daughter (www.toriisamazing.com), and at times I have wondered if I will ever get it done. Then this past Monday February 25, I received a call from Larry's son Mike, and as soon as my wife told me who was on the phone, I knew. It was the call I hoped I would never get, at least not until the book was done so Larry could have enjoyed it. But that opportunity has passed now, which brings us to the present. The book was never supposed to be "about Larry" in terms of glorifying him, so in that sense, I'm sure Larry is not sad or missing anything. With his passing, though, does come a renewed vigor to work at this as diligently as possible and still carry through the original main purpose--to shed some light on Larry's life but even more than that, to redirect people's attention to the God Larry loved his whole life and the God who Larry is enjoying now, face to face. For now, please know your entries continue to be welcome. I am guessing it will still be at least until the summer before this comes together, so the door is open for more stories to be shared. I will also let you know more about the direction the book will take, since I want to speak with Larry's son Mike, as well as Larry's brother Charles & his wife Kristin, about these matters. If you think of it, please pray for Larry's family at this time. I know how much I miss him; I can only imagine how difficult it is for the Norman family. I do hope to have more news to post after this weekend in Salem (I'm scheduled to be in town thru Monday morning), so do check back in soon to see if there are new developments. One last thing: If you are interested in helping support Larry's family at this time by contributing something towards Larry's funeral expenses (as referenced at www.larrynorman.com), please email me & I will let you know how you can follow up on that (this is one of the things I hope to speak with Mike & Charles & Kristin about this weekend). God bless you, td

The concert was Oct. 20, 1977 (I have the date correct by virtue of my old college yearbook). I'd been working at the school FM radio station for 3 years, and we had gone through an experimental journey of programming what we then called "Maranantha Music," of course later referred to as "Contemporary Christian." So I was eagerly anticipating this concert of Larry's "World Tour" and had enjoyed promoting and playing his albums. I was a fan.

The concert was at the small, liberal-arts institution of Sioux Falls College, in Sioux Falls, SD. I remember his airline into Sioux Falls that day had lost his luggage--including his guitar. The radio station was able to find a suitable last minute replacement from one of our staff, and the solo concert went on. He was great that evening, in a humble and personal sort of way.

However, I remember that our school newspaper's perky little editor (an emergent Katie Couric type), left the concert quite upset and with a different opinion. Our school had a little "controversy" over a brief exchange that occurred during the concert.

Even then, Larry was so insistent on forbidding self-promotion, that he had instructed the school paper to take absolutely no photographs of the event. So when our aforementioned editor set up her tripod during the performance, Larry saw her and halted his concert for a moment.

He looked at her and said, "Oh, it's you! Didn't we discuss this already? The part about no photographs?" Stunned, she meekly replied, "But there's no flash...", to which Larry responded, "But that's not the point, and you know that." She carried her camera off, quite upset, and the concert continued.

The buzz that followed was about Larry's being rude in singling her out in such a manner, and I recall a short blurb in the school paper to that effect.

I felt for the girl, but could also sympathize with Larry's stance. It was still a great appearance...

Tim Waugh
Lawrenceville, GA