Obituary-Brother Lawrence Hanshumaker

(1926  - February 4, 2000)

Brother Lawrence Hanshumaker was born Robert Hanshumaker in South Wheeling in 1926. He left Wheeling's Central Catholic High School at the end of his junior year to enter the postulancy in Poughkeepsie as a high school senior. He took the Marist habit on July 26th, 1942. After his novice year, Larry did two years of college studies at Marist Training School, the forerunner of Marist College, after which he was assigned to cook at the Marist juniorate in Tyngsboro. He completed his bachelor's degree during his first few years of teaching.

Brother Larry's teaching career began at St. Ann's Academy; where, along with his other many students, he taught Richard Foy the fundamentals of electricity, electronics and photography.

Together, Larry and Richard took courses in mathematics at St. John's University .

David Kammer, who together with Larry left Wheeling for the Novitiate, was also a teacher at St. Ann's Academy during Brother Larry' s tenure there.

Brother Hanshumaker transferred to teaching at Cardinal Hayes High School in New York City. In 1957-1958, Richard Foy soon followed him to Cardinal Hayes.

Brother "Hans" had set up a ham radio in the attic of the Brothers' residence and invited Richard to be a member of his "wireless" club. The reception for the ham radio was excellent, but because of the lack of heat and little ventilation in the attic, both Brother "Hans" and Richard froze in the winter and sweated in the summer. The ham radio also played havoc with New York Governor Harriman's TV set which was housed across the street from the residence.

Brother Joseph Belanger, who also taught with "Hans" at Cardinal Hayes remembers, "He always had a twinkle in his eyes and a fine sense of humor as he was on the verge of opening your eyes to the beauties of math and science."

In 1965, Richard Foy the second President of Marist College invited Brother Larry to help program the IBM 1401 main frame which hadbeen acquired by Marist College. With a group of similar minded Brothers, Brother Larry had a wonderful time, that summer, introducing new programs into the mainframe.

From Cardinal Hayes, Brother Hanshumaker traveled to Chicago to continue his teaching journey.

Near retirement, Brother Larry took charge of the computer labs at Our Lady of Lourdes school in Pougkeepsie, New York.

Richard Foy remembers Brother "Hans" as an excellent teacher who had great rapport with his students, a brilliant computer programmer and a "great guy."

Source: Original Marists All Site

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