Late Tuesday night dealers around Chicagoland received the sad news that local sales rep Larry Lorenz passed away on Monday. Larry had been an independent rep in the area for over 20 years and had earned the nickname “the Legend” because of the relationships he’d established both with his dealers and his product companies. At Prairie Path Cycles they were always happy to see Larry walk through the door and he consistently went above and beyond the call of the duty- which just a couple weeks ago meant sticking around the store and eating Mexican take-out at 10pm while he stayed to help check in an order.
Larry was also a strong supporter of the local cycling scene and many of the products that local clubs rode or that were used for prizes at races came from Larry. The companies he rep’ed had supported the ABD Cycling Club since 2003.
For the past several years Larry was the rep for Serfas, Profile, Shimano, Bellwether, Yakima, and others. He had also been a rep for Voler clothing and Sinclair Imports during the years many local clubs started using Voler clothing and rode Carnac shoes. At Interbike last year Serfas even unveiled a model of sunglasses named the “Legend” in honor of Larry.
Larry, you will be missed.
4 comments:
Is there a link to an obituary for Larry? What was the cause? I think Larry was around 60+/-.
I was a dealer in St. Louis from 1973 until 2003 and Larry was our rep for assorted vendors. We actually went back to Wisconsin Cycle days in the mid-'80s.
In later years we had heated political arguments, as he was an ardent Ayn Rand supporter and I was most assuredly not. I still have a copy of 'Atlas Shrugged' which he gave me; I always joked that my parakeet loved the pages as a liner-he was unsure if I was being truthful or not.
He was quite knowledgeable and dedicated to cycling. I recall he had some bad luck with bike brands - we signed up for a couple of them only to have them go out of business or be purchased by other companies; I think that happened to three brands.
Larry was a good guy.
Tom Maher (aka Wheels West)
Last month a huge clothing order came in for me from Bellweather. I told Larry I was so busy, I did not know how I can possibly check it in. He came to the shop at 4pm, helped me with customers until we closed at 6, pulled out a bottle of red wine (he knew that would make me happy) and we worked till 10pm and got the order priced and put away. How many reps would take care of their customers like that! That is just how he was. I am going to miss him!! Prairie Path Cycles is going to miss him! So is ABD!!
Mary Lee
info can be found www.davenportfamily.com or www.dailyherald.com
Hi Tom, there is information about Larry at http://obits.davenportfamily.com/obit-display.php?rec_id=638
As for a cause, what we've heard is that it was a brain aneurism.
-ABD
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