Larry D. Bernard

Larry's life began February 27, 1947 in Denver, Colorado. He was the oldest of five children. His siblings include Dean, Sheila, Ladonna and Cheryl. Larry had very good memories of growing up in a semi rural area with his parents, Don and Gladys. They had a milk cow, a couple hogs and lots of chickens and a huge yard and garden. Growing up Larry helped with many chores and the garden work. He had a green thumb for sure. Larry enjoyed many camping and fishing trips with his family in a tent. Both of his grandparents were retired when he was growing up so he had fun going fishing and camping with them every opportunity he got. Larry started fishing when he was three years old so he had a lot of practice and became a very good fisherman. His memories of time spent with grandparents were wonderful. Being the oldest child, Larry was the first to do everything. He was the first to drive, have a girlfriend, go to college, get married, and have the first grandchild. Larry graduated from Arvada High school in 1965. Larry worked many odd jobs throughout high school to save enough money to attend college as he always knew he would go. His interests were biology, chemistry and physics. Larry married Rosemary on May 22, 1971. He married into another fishing and hunting family. He enjoyed many hunting and fishing trips with Rosemary's father, Ralph and they became very close. The two families had many of the same interests and enjoyed so many good times together. Dating Rosemary when she was 16 years old made for a lot of fun for her younger sisters, Ann and Jane. When Larry took Rosemary to meet his family his youngest sister, Cheryl, was only six months. Larry has two wonderful sons. Larry was always very proud of David and Jonathan with whom we always instilled a very strong sense of family. We camped, fished, hunted, gardened, solved everyday problems and worked together and always made our family number one priority. Larry loved yard work. He kept up the family tradition of planting a huge garden every year and it was always very productive. Over the years Larry enjoyed fishing and hunting trips with family members, friends from work, and old time college friends. He enjoyed trips in Colorado, Wyoming and Iowa. He helped his good friend, Don, taxidermy almost every one of his trophies for our family room. It took Larry time to finish college as he stayed out some semesters to work so he could continue on. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in the summer of 1971 with a degree in Biology and Chemistry. Following graduation he worked for the Forest Service, various construction jobs and in 1975 he accepted a job at Coors Brewing Company. He found out that the brewing business fit very well into his school background and all of the things he liked to do. Coors supported him in pursuing continued education in Quality Engineering and Business Management. He held eight different jobs at Coors including Lab supervisor, Process Control Supervisor and Quality Engineer. Larry enjoyed 29 great years at Coors. He always said it was necessary to have fun at work and he made wonderful lasting friendships. He talked about Coors and his work and his friends always and he even still was dreaming he was in meetings and trying to solve problems. He loved every minute of that time in his life. Larry was very fun loving, had a great sense of humor, made friends very easily and kept them for many years. He treasured his family and their future was always his first priority. A Funeral Service honoring Larry will be held on Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:00 AM at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 7577 West 80th Avenue, Arvada, Colorado. The Interment will follow at Arvada Cemetery, 5581 Independence Street, Arvada, Colorado. The family invites you to a reception following the Interment at the Arvada Elks Lodge, 5700 Yukon Street, Arvada, Colorado. Please share your memories of Larry and condolences with his family by signing the guest book below.