
Larry Hilland Weaver was born March 18, 1942, in Beaumont, Texas, and died at home on September 24, 2024, in Creswell, Oregon, where he had lived for decades on a small family farm. He held degrees in math, physics, geology, chemistry and a PhD in protein crystallography. He served in the Peace Corps in Colombia and later as an officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.
His career work was in basic research using X-ray crystallography in the Matthews Lab at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon. He enjoyed the collaborative work environment and the thrill of discovery. He was also known for scrounging the science building loading dock for discarded “treasures” to make into something else. Never know when you might need it!
He built a hydrogen-powered pickup truck and later an electric truck using marine batteries. He built a solar array and a vertical axis windmill in the sheep pasture. One of his most impressive inventions was a gas lawn mower, turned on its side, attached to a boom and run by his tractor to mow the vertical sides of hedges.
In all he did, Larry was kind, gentle, unassuming, and curious. Fluent in Spanish learned in his Peace Corps days, Larry volunteered as a translator during Eugene Friends Meeting’s sanctuary project which provided safety for a family of Salvadoran refugees during the wars there in 1983. There, he met Sheila Hale, and they got married in 1988. He loved trees and planted his own woods. Using a family inheritance, he bought most of Creswell Butte. He and Sheila worked with McKenzie River Trust to craft a conservation easement limiting future development there. He also volunteered for the Coast Fork Willamette River Watershed Council and read with first and second-graders at Creslane Schools’ SMART reading program. Later in life, Larry lived with dementia for several years. He bore the changes gracefully and became a more concentrated version of all his good qualities.
He is survived by his wife, Sheila Hale; step-daughter Hannah Bader, her husband Todd and grandsons Zane, Sage and Ace Bader; step-daughter Sarah Arzaga, her husband Louis Arzaga and grandsons Jet and Nico Arzaga, brother Elton Weaver, niece Heath Weaver Hall, cousins Claire and Wilfred Korth, and Gina Hardin, as well as many, many friends. Larry was much loved and will be missed. A Memorial Meeting will be held on November 2, 2024 at 11 am at Eugene Friends Meeting, 2274 Onyx St, Eugene. Memorial gifts can be offered to McKenzie River Trust.