Larry Gene Honeywell

Larry Gene Honeywell of Pittsboro, North Carolina, passed away peacefully while in hospice care after a long illness on the morning of Monday, October 27. He was 90.

Larry was born on January 4, 1935, in Clinton, Iowa, to Robert Leroy Honeywell and Anna Frederika Hensina (Hansen) Honeywell. He graduated from Clinton High School, where he played quarterback for the Clinton River Kings varsity football team and was a starter on the River Kings’ 1952-53 basketball team that finished third in Iowa state high school boys’ basketball tournament. Larry attended the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the freshman basketball team, the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He also met his future wife, Carol Jean (Skidmore) Honeywell at Iowa. He graduated in 1957 with a BS in Commerce and fulfilled his U.S. Army obligation as a second lieutenant at Ft. Benning in Georgia and Ft. Knox in Kentucky. While at Ft. Knox, the couple had two children, a son and a daughter. After his completing his service, they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where a second daughter was born. The family resided briefly in Rochester, New York, before moving to Edison, New Jersey, where they added two sons to the family. They moved to Metuchen, New Jersey in 1968 before moving to Wheaton, Illinois, in 1972.

The couple was divorced in 1989. While living in Oak Brook, Illinois, Larry married Nancy Howes (Shultz) Honeywell in 1992. They relocated to Governors Club in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1997 and moved to Fearrington in 2018.

Larry was especially proud of his long career in business. He joined Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) as a credit reporter in 1959 and became an early computer programmer in 1962, eventually rising to manager of D&B’s systems and programming department. He became director of data processing at Moody’s Investor Services, a subsidiary of D&B, in1969 and was promoted to vice president within two years.

In 1972, Larry became vice president of a recent D&B acquisition based in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois: Official Airline Guides (OAG), where he was named senior vice president and chief financial officer in 1981. Then in 1986, he accepted a position with A.C. Nielsen, another D&B acquisition, as vice president of finance. Another promotion brought him back to his hometown of Clinton, Iowa, in 1988, where he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nielsen Clearing House.

In 1989, D&B had sold Official Airline Guides to British media mogul Robert Maxwell, who brought Larry back as president of both OAG and Thomas Cook Travel, one of the world’s largest travel agencies. During his tenure, OAG introduced the industry’s first PC-based travel planning tool on CD-ROM. He retired from OAG in 1995.

Larry had a lifelong love of travel, which he was passionate about sharing with Nancy and his children. He was an advocate for independent travel and enjoyed working through all the arrangements—and sharing his strategies in a presentation at Governors Club. Larry was a Life

Master in the American Contract Bridge League and was an avid bridge player and teacher throughout his life. He was a member of the Travel Industry Association board of directors and served as president of the College of DuPage Foundation, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, from 1983 – 1985. After moving to North Carolina, Larry was president of Chatham Habitat for Humanity, where he was instrumental in hiring that organization’s first executive director. He was also a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and a tireless supporter of University of North Carolina basketball.

Larry is preceded in death by his parents, sister Dorothy Anna (Honeywell) Hopkins, and brothers Robert Leroy Honeywell, Jr., and Lewis Dean Honeywell. He is survived by his wife Nancy; five children: Kenneth Wayne (Rebecca), Karin Lynne, Jeanne Diane Landreth (Michael), Thomas Allen (Janet), and Stephen James (Susan); eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild; and hundreds of friends and admirers. A celebration of life is planned for Saturday, March 7, 2 p.m., at the Gathering Place at Fearrington in Pittsboro. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Chatham Habitat for Humanity and CORA Food Pantry in Pittsboro.