At the request of his wife, Ruth, it is with great sadness that I write to you of the loss of our dear friend and VOSH colleague, Larry Hauler. Larry passed away peacefully at home this morning, at the age of 86, after a brief illness.
Larry Hauler was a volunteer for VOSH since 1990. His son Jack recruited him after his retirement from teaching elementary school to neutralize and pack glasses for a "few" mission trips. Since that time, Larry collected, transported, sorted, cleaned, neutralized, categorized, and packed all of the glasses used for every VOSH PA mission, and for several other groups as well. Larry was also a volunteer optician on many of the early trips, providing care to patients in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, and Mexico, a role in which he took great pleasure. Even after health issues in the early 2000's prevented his travel, Larry was in his basement lab at 6am every morning, processing over 10,000 glasses each year to provide the high quality of glasses needed for these missions and for the permanent clinics in Guatemala and Haiti. In addition to his other numerous volunteer activities, he volunteered for 6 years at the PHiladelphia Veterans Administration StandDown in the optical department, assisting our local optimentric association caring for homeless veterans. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Larry Hauler was directly responsible for the glasses that gave the gift of sight to over a quarter of a million people in the developing world. Larry was also a member of the VOSH-PA Board.
Many volunteers get to directly experience the joy of seeing the fruits of their labor in the eyes of those they serve. Larry was the most altruistic type volunteer, as he labored daily in his basement, doing the necessary but definitely not glamourous work of preparing several hundreds of thousands of glasses for people with whom he would never shake hands or see smile. Larry's wife Ruth, was always constant and gracious in her support of his work.
Visitation will be on Sunday, November 20th from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at Joseph A Fluehr Funeral Home, 800 Newtown Richboro Rd., Richboro, PA 18954. Funeral Services will be on Monday, November 21st at 10:30am at St. Johns United Methodist Church, 820 Almshouse Rd., Ivyland, PA 18974.
If desired, memorial donations may be made to VOSH-PA, c/o Paul D. Halpern, O.D., 544 Haws Avenue, Norristown, PA 19401, attention Kelly Murphy, Secretary/Treasurer or the charity of your choice.
Condolences may be sent to: Mrs. Lawrence Hauler, 249 Thursh Circle, New Hope, Pa 18938.
