Getting to Know Larry Litzmann – St. Thomas Pastoral Council Member
Larry was born In Hallettsville, Texas on Mar. 23^rd; he has two younger sisters.  His father was
an insurance salesman, and his mother was a homemaker. When Larry was thirteen the family
moved to Brenham, Texas for a short time and then to Columbus, Texas and his father started working with a construction company selling metal buildings.  His mother started working in the high school cafeteria making the desserts, and over the next 25 years became the head of the district cafeteria system. Larry’s mother is 88 years young, and still lives in the Hallettsville area on the old homestead with her daughter, who is a nurse and takes care of her.
Larry has fond childhood memories of visiting his grandparents and great-grandparents on their farms in Hallettsville, eating fresh-baked cornbread slathered in butter with sugar, sleeping on big feather beds in the winter, picking cotton, and learning to drive the tractor when he was 8 years old!
Larry attended and graduated from Columbus High School, where he played baseball and varsity football. He says they had good teams, and won district games in their division several years.  He still keeps in touch with friends, and is hoping to get to celebrate their 50^th reunion soon. His favorite subjects in school were science and biology. Larry began college in Brenham at Blinn Jr. College for 2 years, and transferred to University of Houston where he graduated with a degree in pharmacy.
Three years before Larry graduated from U. of H. he met his future wife, Isabel, in Schulenburg, Texas. She was from a strong Catholic family, while Larry had grown up in a strict Lutheran family. A year and a half later they were married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in High Hill in a large wedding with 3 priests and all their relatives in attendance. This church is considered the “Queen of the Painted Churches” in the area. They have been married 48 years; have 2 daughters, 40 and 36, who live respectively in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Kingwood, Texas.  They have 2 grandchildren ages 7 and 14 months.
After graduation Larry began his career as a pharmacist with Eckerd’s in Houston and quickly transferred to the Bryan/College Station area. When their first daughter was born, he felt that the family should worship together, and converted to Catholicism. His career subsequently took the family to Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Tampa, Fla., and Louisville, Ken. Larry had multiple positions within the pharmaceutical company from retail sales, to being head of sales in Texas and a 10-state region, to senior Vice-President. Today He is semi-retired, working 3 days a week at HEB.
Larry and Isabel love to combine golfing with travel, and have been to Marco Island in Fla., Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Scottsdale, AZ. to name a few.  For their 45^th wedding anniversary they took 14 people to Hawaii. This summer they are hoping to go to Glacier National Park in Montana with their family. Every year they get together and have a family men’s golf tournament of 15-17 family members.
Larry and Isabel and their children vacationed many years in Canyon Lake and New Braunfels, camping in the Guadalupe River. So in 2006 they bought 7 acres in Mystic Shores with the plan to build a home and retire, which they did in 2014. He remembers coming to St. Thomas then when it was just an open-air pavilion.
Larry feels that in order for our church community to grow and move forward the challenge will be to get people to come back and make them feel safe. He thinks churches have been unduly restricted, and we need to look for opportunities to encourage participation.
Thank you, Larry for all you do for[LH1]  our church!