Larry had a natural, quiet graciousness about him all his life. He was intellectually very sharp. At the same time, he listened intently to what you had to say... took time out to consider and gauge what you said... then reflected your thoughts back to you in a rich, yet concise manner that added to your own overall understanding. This magnanimity and intellectual generosity just came naturally for him.

Larry's quick intellect takes me all the way back to our student days at MIT, when he and I, and John Yuan, shared an apartment in Cambridge one summer. Larry excelled in physics and math, as I recall. We were all taking courses that summer, but the difference was that, while the rest of us diligently pursued the requisite lectures and coursework, Larry mostly slept through them, or skipped classes altogether. Yet, come exam time, he crash-studied the night prior, then nonchalantly went in and aced it!

But Larry wasn't always studious; far from it... let me share with you this further experience from that summer in Cambridge. One sweltering evening, David Chu came over to hang out at our apartment. A noisy group of "frat rats" were out on the sidewalk, 3 floors immediately below, drinking beer and generally making a nuisance of themselves. I'm not sure if it was David or Larry who first floated the idea... We doused the lights in our apt, waited a few minutes, then heaved several water balloons out the window. They struck with precision, eliciting several screams of surprise and astonishment, then anger. They must have looked up; but only the 2nd floor windows were lit... we heard a rushing rumble of shoes to the 2nd floor... banging on the door... some frightened squeals from the 2 female student residents inside, who must have then called the police. About 2 minutes later, Cambridge police officers showed up, ordered the unruly band of grumbling (and wet) youngsters out of the building, while we cowered in the dark one floor above, and held onto our mouths and stomachs for dear life.

Many years later, when I was working in finance in New York, and Larry in investment management in Princeton, he would periodically show up in town lugging his violin. We'd have lunch or dinner together, engage in some shoptalk on investments, and debated the pros & cons of portfolio models; then he'd be off to play with his quartet, to which he was very dedicated.  There goes the polymath among us, I would think, a true renaissance man.

Larry, you left us too soon. I shall truly miss you.

JC

Our FF Brother Larry Liu returned to Hong Kong in the mid-1990's for a very short time, maybe one or two years.  Of course, he was in HK when he was in primary and secondary school, but after MIT, he mostly stayed in the US.

As an FF Brother, he was always welcome to any of our HK Lodge events and functions, though I don't recall seeing him at many of those functions and gatherings.  In scouring through our photo archives, amazingly I found two photos that had Larry in them, and they are posted here.  The event was the Annual Ball, with the theme, Shanghai Dreaming, and the dress code was either formal or traditional Chinese dress.  In the photo of the singing of the FF Song, some members could be seen in strange outfits (like cross dressing as a female), and that is because the singing of the FF Song occurs after we have put on a skit as entertainment, and some of the members are in their skit outfits.

One other time, I ran into Bro. Larry in Central in HK, and he and I went to dinner at the Ningpo Residents Association restaurant in Central.  While at MIT, I vaguely recall sharing an apartment in Cambridge, Mass. with Larry and others like Daniel Pang, Wei Tak, and one other.  I always marveled at Larry's brilliant mind, and how he never seemed to have to study while I and others at MIT had to hit our books and notes every chance we had.  

The last time I saw Larry was in 2010 in NY at the FF Centenniel Reunion, and there was a special dinner organized and hosted by Bro. Stanley Chang and Sis. Jean.  I walked back to the NY Hilton Hotel after the dinner with Larry and during the walk, he told me much about the advancing stages of the ailment he was dealing with.  By then, he was already looking frail and weak.  

Though my interactions with Larry were not that much, I shall remember him in a very fond and warm way.  May the Lord bless and keep you and your family, Larry.  

(Added by edit:  At the dinner I had with Larry in HK, we talked about music, and in particular we talked about JS Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.  Larry was aghast at my temerity of suggesting that I could dance a Viennese Waltz to this, the most famous of JS Bach's compositions.  So as a remembrance of our talk about this piece, here is a link of my playing an easy version of this title.

< http://www.tangoll.com.hk/Jesu-PCM.mp3  >)

Po Mar