Obituary of Lawrence J. Wallace, Sr.
It’s been said that when an accomplished man passes, it’s like losing a library. Volumes of learnedness have forever been cataloged as the Lord has called home one of his favorite authors, Lawrence James (“Larry”) Wallace, Sr. of Watching and Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
Born at his parent’s home in Palmyra, N.J., on July 8, 1930, to Leo Calvert and Anna Marie (formerly Doyle) Wallace, he was notably the seventh son of a seventh son, an iconic distinction in his Scots-Irish heritage. After his birth, the family moved to Riverton, NJ, where he attended Sacred Heart Grade School and Palmyra High School.
As a Navy man, Larry served aboard the U.S.S. Kearsarge (CV-33) during the Korean War. After his hitch, he took full advantage of the G.I. Bill and graduated with a business degree from the University of Maryland. But back in grade school, a textbook photograph of a yellow bulldozer caught his eye, motivating him to want to know everything about those machines. Inspired by that memory and having applied and been accepted to Caterpillar tractor’s prestigious sales training program, the day after their wedding he and his supportive newlywed wife, Nancy Joan (formerly Start) traveled to Peoria, IL. Not wanting to subject the future family he had in mind to the rigors of continuous corporate relocations and missing their home state, Larry accepted a position with Foley Machinery, Inc., the Northern New Jersey Caterpillar dealer with whom he’d spend the next 37 years until retiring in 1995 as Executive Vice President.
During that tenure, Larry played an integral role in providing the equipment and counsel to the contractors that built much of the state’s major infrastructure projects, including the widening of both the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and the long-delayed completion of Route 78. He’d say, “Nothing gets built until you dig a hole in the ground,” and Larry applied that same professional mantra to more personal matters as well. When the early Fall darkness started interfering with the Pop Warner football practices at the Warren Township municipal field, Larry persuaded local utility company workers to donate and install some large wooden utility poles on which the field lights were affixed. He was a superior negotiator and closer, yet always with his mind’s eye on the greater good.
Larry likewise enthusiastically planted and tended abundant flowers in his yard, many of which he germinated from seed in his greenhouse, and as a proud Jerseyite, he was a consummate lover and consumer of the fresh produce for which The Garden State is known: tomatoes, corn, peaches, cantaloupe and above all, strawberries. As the season for each approached, he’d get that gleam in his eye saying, “I just gotta have ‘em!”
Lifelong practicing Catholics, he and Nancy were stalwart buttresses of Mount Saint Mary’s Stony Hill parish in Watchung and for decades were integral in helping provide for many of the church’s needs, large and small. When the church’s men’s softball team needed ball caps to complement their bright yellow Mountaineers t-shirts, but the team budget couldn’t provide such, Larry responded with a box of yellow Cat hats for which the team became envied.
Together with his family, Larry enjoyed his home on Long Beach Island, equally savoring summers on the water and winter evenings in front of his fireplace. In retirement, Larry increasingly enjoyed (and was equally frustrated by) his golf game and was one of the founding members of Sea Oaks Country and Golf Club (now L.B.I. National) in Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J.
A man of uncomplicated needs and extraordinary discipline, Larry always simply advised his children, “Just do the right thing.” A library of knowledge in a sentence.
Larry was predeceased by his parents and older brothers, Joseph “Joe”, John “Jack”, William “Bill”, Charles “Charlie”, younger brother Paul and stalwart son-in-law to daughter Stacy, Wayne Albert.
He is survived by Nancy, his beloved wife and life’s partner of 67 years, his brother Leo “Snap” as well as his three children, Stacy Anne, Lawrence James Jr. (“L.J.”), Douglas Sean, and granddaughter and apple of his eye, Alexandria Lynn (“Lexie”). “Uncle Larry” was a strong presence and patriarch to many of his 27 nieces and nephews, some of whom dubbed him their “North Star.”
A memorial mass will be held on Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 11:00 a.m., at St. Mary's Stony-Hill R.C. Church in Watchung, NJ.
In lieu of flowers and the like, Larry would have requested, “Please, don’t cut those beautiful flowers for me! You enjoy them. But a card to my wife with a note would be nice.”
