Larry Donaker died Sept. 3, 2008, in Berkeley, Calif. Like too many others, he was a non-smoking victim of lung cancer.
Larry followed his brother, John ’65, to Princeton from Oak Park, Ill. An electrical engineer, he was a member of the Engineering Council, ate at Tower, and was an intramural swimmer. He roomed with Robert Cantor ’68 in Blair.
After earning an M.B.A. at Harvard, Larry spent much of his career with IBM in the San Francisco Bay Area and taught computer programming and math at Berkeley High School before retiring in 2005. Larry and Anne moved to Berkeley in 1973 and lived in the same happy home for 35 years.
A definitive family man, Larry supported, transported, and participated in countless family adventures, always eager to talk about topics ranging from Euler’s life, to the last place traveled, to the differences between plasma and LCD TVs — and amazingly, some of it stuck. Larry enjoyed spending down time sitting in his chair with a cup of coffee, surrounded by family (including dogs and cats) and friends.
The class extends its condolences to Anne, Larry’s wife of 41 years; his children, Geoff, Gwendy, and Greg and their spouses; his grandsons, Zachary, Joshua, and Nathaniel; and his three siblings.