Lawrence Everett Savage

Lawrence Everett Savage was born on Christmas Eve in 1934 to Everett and Berthe’ Savage in Seattle, Washington.  He joined his parents, parents-in-law, and brother-in-law in Heaven on July 4th 2026.

Larry married the love of his life, Maridel, in 1967 and began building a life with her in Des Moines, Washington. Together, they raised three wonderful children: Melissa, Aleesha, and Matthew, encouraging and supporting each of them in every interest they pursued, including dance, choir, soccer, baseball, and more. He was always present and never missed a school or sporting event.  He was a proud grandfather to  Brendan, Taylor, Colyn, Hunter, Logan, Madison, and Hannah.  Great-Grandchildren: Ryker, Evelyn, Kolt, Eoghan, and Elsie. He loved his weekly talks with his little brother, Armand, in Bakersfield, CA.  He had many friends, nieces, nephews, and even 4 great-grandchildren.  He especially loved his sister-in-law, Sharon, son-in-law Mike, and daughter-in-law Dani.  The best part of Larry was his dry sense of humor and hearing him truly laugh as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.

Larry was an interesting and highly intelligent man.  He remembered his time in third grade hiding under a desk in Sunday School on Dec. 7th, 1941, at the naval base in Oakland, CA.  The base informed all that the mainland was going to get attacked next after Pear Harbor.  He was not allowed to leave with his mother until late that afternoon.  His memory of that was always fresh and never changed.

He moved a lot as a child due to his father’s military career and eventually followed in his footsteps after his graduation from Ballard High School.  This was the main reason for his family’s settlement in Des Moines as he wanted his children to have roots and to live out his life.  Larry joined the United States Coast Guard in 1952, entered active duty in 1953, and served during the Korean Conflict. He was also honored with an appointment to the United States Coast Guard Academy.

After his military service he enrolled in Seattle University when the professors were still priests.  That must have been quite an experience to be instructed by priests!! He completed his studies as a math and science major.  Math was HIS language!  Raised Catholic he never knew any academia outside of the Catholic faith apart from his 4 years at Ballard High.

He loved and participated in all sports.  An accomplished basketball player in college, yes, he played with Elgin Baylor.  He excelled at tennis, baseball, golf, mountain biking, mountain climbing, hiking, and even won some racquetball championships in his lifetime.  He especially loved to fish with his best friend, his father-in-law, Del.  He called him ‘Dad’ and Del called him ‘Son’.  Their bond was one of love and respect.

Larry was humble about his career and accomplishments.  He was a very successful Boeing Engineer and participated in the Apollo program.  He also helped design some of the most iconic wings for Boeing military aircraft. He was present the day the first IBM computer was delivered to Boeing in the belly of a Boeing cargo plane.  It had 1GB of ram and was the size of a small car.  He was still amazed that the phones we held in our hands were 100 times more capable than the first computer he worked on. He was also very successful in his career with the United States Government. He was part of a program and wrote computer code at White Sands Nuclear Test Laboratory so that offices could send computer messages to one another.  Yes, the very first intranet.  He ended his career as one of 12 Y2K coordinators for the Social Security Administration and retired on Saturday, January 2nd 2000.  He was even invited to meet the President based on his Y2K accomplishment but declined. He left his office that Saturday after the last government office hit ‘Enter’ and all computers rolled over to a 4-digit year. He spent the last of his years enjoying sports, his children, and grandchildren.  His greatest accomplishment in his words was, “meeting the neatest lady in the world and raising kids he could be proud of”.  He adored his grandchildren and was so glad his wife Maridel introduced him to the power of being a pet owner.  He LOVED animals and all the pets he had over the years.

Larry, Husband, Dad, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, Brother, Uncle, Brother-in-law, Father-in-law, and Friend at the time of his passing. Larry will be missed by so many people. He was an amazingly complex human being that loved his family as much as he was loved.