Lawrence Daniel West, Jr.

He was the third generation in his family with the proper name of Lawrence but commonly known as Larry, and he wasn’t Lawrence III because his grandfather’s full name was Lawrence Clinton West. From a farming background in Delaware, Larry’s father grew  up in Philadelphia where his father was a street cleaner during the Depression.

Shortly after Larry was born in 1949, his family (which was just him and his parents) moved to Delaware for a time before returning to the city. When he was a teenager they lived at 5941 Addison Street in West Philly. He attended Edward W. Bok Technical High School, which meant he had a long bus or trolley ride to 8th and Mifflin Streets. The Art Deco building is across the street from Southwark School (grades K-8), and was closed in 2013.

He played Junior Varsity football and his area of interest was Machine Shop. Perhaps his father had told him he was a machinist when he married Larry’s mother, Gladis, in 1945. Shown above is Larry’s 1967 graduation photo. 

From there he joined the Air Force and served in Vietnam. His dates of service and the story of his life afterward isn’t known. His parents outlived him, so they had this marker placed over their beloved son’s grave in Section 140 near the Naval Plot.