A Tribute to Lark Group Founder Larry Fisher

I just had the great hon­our to be asked to speak at the cel­e­bra­tion of life of some­one I was very for­tu­nate to work with. Watch­ing him thrive, in his ear­ly 80s, and have such a pos­i­tive impact on his com­mu­ni­ty, com­pa­ny and fam­i­ly, inspired me to be a bet­ter ver­sion of myself.

Through the sto­ries, from dif­fer­ent parts of his life, from some of the hun­dreds of peo­ple at his Van­cou­ver cel­e­bra­tion of life, I was remind­ed of how I want to live my life. Here, in my trib­ute to him, are a few of mine.

Our world recent­ly lost some­one who had mul­ti­ple impacts on thou­sands of peo­ple’s lives.

I was for­tu­nate to work with Lar­ry Fish­er who built the con­struc­tion and devel­op­ment Lark Group of Com­pa­nies, for about 4−1÷2 years before he start­ed the final bat­tle he unfor­tu­nate­ly didn’t win. In his late 70s when we met, he was the exam­ple of how I want to live: to thrive, be suc­cess­ful in busi­ness and live an amaz­ing life. Into his 80s, he was still ski­ing more than 40 days a year at Whistler.

Lar­ry, his son Kirk, and their exec­u­tive team, built many amaz­ing build­ings in the Van­cou­ver area, includ­ing the health and tech­nol­o­gy dis­trict across from Sur­rey Memo­r­i­al Hos­pi­tal. Very involved in the com­mu­ni­ty, he want­ed to make the City of Sur­rey, in par­tic­u­lar, a notably bet­ter place to live and work. Lar­ry pushed hard to build a great com­pa­ny that not only was good for the com­mu­ni­ty but cre­at­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for employees.

Deeply con­nect­ed to his fam­i­ly, he treat­ed many peo­ple in his com­pa­ny like fam­i­ly, as well. If you met Lar­ry, you’d nev­er for­get his enthu­si­asm and pas­sion, which can be some summed up in the pur­pose of his com­pa­ny: To bold­ly ele­vate people.

When you were around him, you were always ele­vat­ed in some way. Whether it was a debate, with a whole lot of laugh­ter; or being inspired to stay late and work hard­er to get a job done.

I’ve nev­er seen any­one so excit­ed to talk about bru­tal facts. He’d pound the table and was like a kid in the can­dy store because he want­ed to make sure we dealt with any uncom­fort­able issues that could hurt the business.

One night, as we worked on a crit­i­cal project for one of his com­pa­nies, after a full day of a strate­gic plan­ning, Lar­ry – 81 years old – was with us until mid­night, mak­ing sure that we were well-hydrat­ed and fed so that we could keep on working.

A few key mem­o­ries of Lar­ry flash through my mind:

At every strate­gic plan­ning meet­ing, no mat­ter where we were – in a board­room, retreat cen­tre or hotel –about 4:00 pm, he’d always wheel in a cool­er of refresh­ments to bring extra ener­gy and cre­ativ­i­ty to the group.

On a few occa­sions, I was with him when, at the end of a long day, he talked to his 101-year-old mom on speak­er phone. They would share a dai­ly brandy and she would sing him a song.

Lar­ry sat at the front of the room, as I taught the prin­ci­ples of Your Oxy­gen Mask First to his key lead­ers, tak­ing more notes than any­body else. And fly­ing back from Boul­der, Col­orado after spend­ing two days with Jim Collins at a pri­vate ses­sion – an absolute high­light for him because he was a mas­sive fol­low­er of Good to Great – I could­n’t get any work done because Lar­ry want­ed me to help him fin­ish and refine his Fly­wheel. I actu­al­ly kneeled in the aisle beside his seat, mov­ing when the crew came by with the bev­er­age cart.

His enthu­si­asm nev­er diminished.

Lar­ry, with his son Kirk, cre­at­ed and ran an amaz­ing com­pa­ny for 50 years with every­thing it takes to endure for at least anoth­er 50. I was con­vinced, as may oth­ers were, that he expect­ed to be at the helm of his group of com­pa­nies, impact­ing peo­ple on a dai­ly basis, well past his 100^th birthday.

He con­sis­tent­ly worked with such a con­ta­gious joy and pas­sion that radi­at­ed every­where and you could­n’t help but want to be part of it and always left feel­ing more ele­vat­ed. I am so proud to have known him.

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

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