Larry L. Gates died Tuesday, April 19, 2005, in Swedish Hospital after a brief illness. He was 67 years old.

Mr. Gates was born in Rock Island, Ill., Oct. 27, 1937, and moved to Vashon at age 6. He attended school on Vashon and remained an Island resident for the rest of his life, leaving only briefly to serve in the military as a paratrooper.

Mr. Gates worked 30 years on the King County road crew, mostly as a heavy-duty machine operator.

The Vashon roadways will never be as clean and well tended as when Larry left them, friends say. Larry enjoyed carpentry and building model airplanes. He built many squirrel feeders, bird feeders and pieces of furniture in his wood shop that was built for him when he retired.

Survivors include his wife Patty and faithful dog Gizmo, step daughter Shawn Albin, sons Jeffery and Patrick Gates, sisters Shirley Lyon and Patricia Tetwiler, nieces and nephews Linda Baff and her son John Rogers, Debrah Ray and her daughter and granddaughter Lisa and Alexis Irons, Terrisa and Carey Anderson and their children Devon Anderson and Jacob Tetwiler, Donald Pearson and his children Marissa, Elizabeth and granddaughter Julian, Jerry Robert and Laura Lyon and their children Christopher and Abigail.

His parents, Walter and Vivian Gates, died earlier as did his brothers, William and Richard Vehmeier, and stepson Patrick Mitchell.

At his request, there were no services. Memorial donations in his name can be made to an animal care agency or the American Heart Association.