Lawrence "Larry" Joseph Pfaff

Lawrence Joseph Pfaff passed away peacefully at age 83 on Jan 1, 2025. 

Larry is survived by his wife, Paula (Caughey); sons, Joe (Jane) and Tony (Katie), and 4 grandchildren, Colleen, James, Will and Adam.
Larry was born in LaCrosse WI, September 28, 1941, the son of Lawrence and Helen (Stluka) Pfaff.  He grew up in Holmen, WI as a farm kid along with his sister Jeanenne, brother Jeff and favorite dog ‘Butchy’.  His frugal and humble character came from life on the farm.
Larry went to Holmen High School where he was captain of the basketball team, and both prom and homecoming king.  He was remembered as quick in basketball and not afraid to score, often saying “If you don’t shoot, someone else will”.
He served 4 years in the Air Force, stationed in Japan and worked as a radiology technician.  Elements of this time never left him - he took great pride in having summited Mount Fuji, and had an enduring love of table tennis and the Japanese potsticker known as gyoza (best enjoyed with beer of course).
After earning his business degree from UW LaCrosse in 1967, he started worked in St. Paul at St Joe’s Hospital in 1967.  One fateful early morning before work, Larry met his future wife Paula in the hospital cafeteria, asking her to join him for coffee.  They married April 4, 1970 at the St. Paul Cathedral.
Larry took a job with St. Paul Fire & Marine in 1968 and the new couple moved to Detroit in 1971 with a job transfer.  Larry & Paula welcomed the arrival of their 2 sons Joe and Tony, living in what would be his favorite home anywhere, a classic Georgian brick house. A job transfer prompted their return to St. Paul in 1977, settling in the Highland Park neighborhood, where he would remain the rest of his life.
As a Certified Internal Auditor and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, Larry provided for his family with over 30+ years at St. Paul Fire & Marine and 10 years as Anoka County auditor.  He had the saver’s curse, once telling his children “If you need anything we’ll always be here for you.  If you need money, well…we’ll have to talk about it.
Larry’s fondest memories include being in the Wisconsin coulees around his hometown, seeing Alaska’s rugged beauty, but from "a first class deck", witnessing Holsteins at 10,000 feet in Austria, staying in a room with actual Inca walls in Ecuador, feeling the winds of Cape Breton, viewing the stunning sunrise at Lake Louise in Banff, and telling his "joke of the day" while on summer vacation with his extended family.
Larry was a natural conversationalist, and endlessly enjoyed connecting with people over coffee.  He had a strong gift for initiating conversations with strangers and had a remarkable ability to lead discussions over a wide range of topics. The Quixotic coffee shop in Highland Park hosted a daily gathering and a topic discussion group with dear friends for decades.  
Larry was known for his many quips, quotes and most of all his jokes.  True, the jokes weren’t always memorable, but the way he told them was.  His laughter while telling the joke was often so contagious that the punchline itself became irrelevant.  His children and grandchildren couldn’t play at the Como Golf Course without being cautioned to be on the lookout because the zookeeper’s tiger count at the adjacent Como Zoo was short by one.
He told these jokes with his family and the hospice staff up to the day before he died.
Above all, and most importantly, Larry was a good guy.

Services will be held on Saturday, January 18th at The Church of St. Cecelia (2357 Bayless Pl, St Paul, MN) with a visitation starting at 10am, Mass at 11am and lunch to follow after mass. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to a charity of your choice in memory of Larry. 

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