Lawrence Macphail Vinal died unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. He was picking up Thanksgiving pies for his family when he collapsed. Larry was 67 years old and had been successfully battling cancer. In his typical fashion, he was brave, strong, and uncomplaining as he faced yet another health issue.
Larry was creative, vibrant, funny, and a lifelong learner. He loved his wife, children, family, and friends with fierceness and with joy. He was a gifted lifelong “Actah” who worked professionally for a time in his youth and continued to act with many wonderful community theatre groups throughout his life. Larry loved his fellow thespians and his passion for acting was a gift both to him and to us all.
Larry had a Bachelor of Arts in theatre from the University of Maine. With a typical Mainer’s work ethic Larry started working as a teenager and continued to work throughout his whole life to support himself and his family. He did a myriad of things throughout his career including restaurant work, retail management, all types of technology sales and services, and he was in a full-time position at the Maine Emergency Management Agency at the state of Maine as its business systems administrator. Over the years, Larry’s coworkers often became dear and lifelong friends.
Larry is survived by his beloved wife of 35 years, Diane; his amazing son, Quinn and his partner, Alison; his beautiful daughter, Ari; his brother, John; sisters: Jeanne, Cally, and Heather; sisters and brothers-in-law; aunts and cousins, nieces and nephews, and many grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Family was everything to Larry and he always counted himself blessed to have his loved ones.
Diane and Larry first lived together in beautiful Chamberlain. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that like Civil War Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Larry had the “Soul of the Lion.” Larry was a gift to all who knew him. He will be deeply, deeply missed.
There will be a celebration of Larry’s wonderful life in the spring.
Condolences may be expressed at funeralalternatives.net.
