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Larry Elliott Willner moved to Buffalo from New Haven at
age two, with his parents, Abe and Ann Willner. He played French horn for seven
years; was active in Boy Scouts; and won a city-wide speaking competition where
he presented a paper on college minority discrimination—based on his own denied
admission to an Ivy League school. He entered West Point from New York with the
Class of ’53. After a battle with “The Math Gods,” he joined ’54 with a
determination that shone throughout the rest of his life. He grabbed everything
that came his way with enthusiasm and a will to master it. He served on The
Pointer Staff and was a member of the Debate Council, Jewish Chapel Choir,
Cross Country Team, and—his greatest passion—the Pistol Team, where he made “All
America-Pistol.” His sense of humor never disappeared, even when he lost half
his Jewish holiday cookies to his boodle-loving roommates.
To pursue his constant theme, “The Future of the World is
Electronics,” Larry selected the Signal Corps and was posted to the 3rd Signal
Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, at Ft. Benning, GA. He was named to the All
Army Pistol Team, and, as he practiced on the range, his future wife watched
from her office
window. Larry and Inga were married in the Post Chapel on 28 Oct
1956. After a honeymoon, they left for France. There he discovered French food
and the wines that complemented it, becoming a “wine maven.” He and Inga had a
love affair with France. He loved classical music, opera and, late in life,
learned to love country music.
At Headquarters, Armed Forces
Communications—Europe, he was project officer for the radio frequency
identification chips newly fielded for the Army in Europe. In Fontainebleau, he
commanded the 298th Signal Company. In 1959, he attended the Signal Advanced
Course at Ft. Monmouth, followed in 1960 by a tour as Assistant Professor
of Military Science at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. After earning his
MBA in 1964, he left for the frozen north and assignment to the DCA at Elmendorf
Air Force Base, AK. His fellow officers in the control center appreciatively
remember his standing duty on Christian holidays, just as he had done elsewhere.
There he and his family learned to fish. The family proudly displays a photo of
son Allan at age six, standing beside the 35-pound halibut that Larry caught—the
fish as tall as Allan. His pride showed at Ft. Richardson when he displayed his
home-grown tomatoes, basil, and soup-bowl-sized dahlias.
After Command and
General Staff College in 1968, he went to the Military Assistance Command-Viet
Nam as lead project officer for unattended ground sensors used in the
Demilitarized Zone and on the Ho Chi Minh trail. He then commanded the ADA 2nd Region Signal Battalion at
Selfridge Air Force Base, MI. In 1971, at Combat Development Command
(Communications-Electronics Agency) at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, he put his experience
and vision to use developing multiservice and multi-national communications and
electronics strategy, tactics and equipment for the Army of the future. He was a
major force in efforts to automate communications switching from requirements
through deployment. Follow-on systems today have their origin in Larry’s ground
breaking work. He next served two years in the Office of the Assistant Secretary
of the Army (FM), graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces as a
1975 Research Fellow, worked three years in Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff
for Operations, and two years in Office of the Army Chief of Staff.
Larry’s son and daughter loved the “evenings out with Dad” at the Washington
Capitols hockey games. His daughter Susan remembers their special time together
each spring in DC, when they would rise early to greet the sunrise at the Tidal
Basin when the cherry blossoms were most beautiful. Allan cherishes going to the
flea market with his Dad and spending hours among the vendors, sometimes picking
up a treasure, often purchasing nothing. Their favorite find was a brass door
knocker in the figure of an owl which hangs today on Inga’s condo door. Above
all, he was a family man.
Offered a brigade in Panama, Larry drove home from
Judge Advocate General School listening to Kenny Rogers sing: “You have to know
when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em.” He decided it was time to “fold
’em” and retired as a colonel in 1980. Larry’s Awards included: the
Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, two
Meritorious Service Medals, and the Joint Service Commendation Medal.
Larry’s profession became “civilian.” In 1981 he became Director
of Business Development at Western Union. Two years later, he became Senior
Director and, in 1984, Vice President and General Manager for the Government
Systems Division. Larry’s senior at Western Union recalls a troubled contract
with the Department of Energy that Larry personally shepherded into a
productive program. This became his trademark management style: quiet, incisive,
and always “open door.” He was noted for being thorough. He served as Chairman
of the Board WU-Hawaii; Senior VP CONTEL; Group VP ISN Corp; Executive VP,
INTACT Corp; and VP for Tele-Communications Management Services at Sherikon. He
retired again in 1998 and served as a member of the Fairfax County (VA) Consumer
Protection Commission and the NVCC Electronics Technology Advisory Committee and
taught Retirement Planning to military officers and CIA personnel.
One of Larry’s officers wrote “I saw (in Larry) a man that I
wanted to emulate in all ways. Indeed, my life goals and aspirations were
profoundly changed because he mentored this young captain who mostly wanted to
leave the Army and make widgets. He magically made things happen in everything
he did.” But always with humor. Larry died suddenly on 19 Jan 2004 of a cerebral
hemorrhage. “… and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and
say to all the world ‘This was a man!’” Be thou at peace.
—Inga K. Willner, his wife of 47 years, with
James E. Briggs ’54, and Clark Bailey ’58
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