Lawrence (Larry) Holland, founder of Treasure Coast Avionics in Florida, passed away March 3 after a long illness.
He was born in 1944 in Wichita, the Air Capital of the World. His love for electronics and ham radio led him to start his career at Bevan Rabell 1964. In 1971 he moved to Savannah, Ga., where he ran the avionics shop at Savannah Air Service for several years. In 1978 he moved to Valdosta, Ga., working as the field service tech rep for EdoAire Mitchell radios and autopilots.
A service center was briefly opened in Vero Beach, Fla., in 1982, which is where Larry, his wife Patt and two daughters, Robyn and Cathy, settled.
Larry worked in avionics in Vero Beach throughout the 1980s. He founded Treasure Coast Avionics in 1990. His youngest daughter Cathy had always accompanied him to work and to visit different airports growing up and started working with Larry in February 1993
Some of the highlights of his career in avionics were working on the LoPresti Swift Fury, designing accessories, such as dimmers and audio interface boxes, for many experimental aircraft, working on the Micco Aircraft avionics design, and working on avionics in antique aircraft, including a Howard.
Outside of aviation, Larry loved music and was a talented piano player. He would spend hours playing his keyboard at home and even in the avionics shop entertaining customers.
Larry recently celebrated his 49th wedding anniversary with his wife Patt.
His daughter Cathy is going to continue running Treasure Coast Avionics as he trained her so well to do.
For more information, click here or go to TreasureCoastAvionics.com
Best wishes to Cathy and crew. Larry did work for me several times, including complete panels for my experimental Velocity. Always first rate work at a fair price. And most valued of all, a great problem investigator and solver.
God speed, Larry, and thank your for you service.
When I saw Bevan Rabell it peaked my interest enough to read the entire story. Yup, Wichita “used” to be the Air Capitol of the World, however, that has changed dramatically with the down sizing of GA. Not sure the LSA is the answer to re-vitalizatiom as I believe fuel prices and the FAA are primarily responsible for the slow down of GA-!