We have word from Deana Sun that Larry Skalak has died of an apparent heart attack while on a trip to San Francisco. Details are sketchy at this point, but Deana said that Larry had planned to fly to San Francisco Wednesday, pick up the bike he had shipped out there, and ride across the Rockies to visit one of his three sons in Colorado. Here is a message that was sent to the Williamsburg bicycle club earlier today: We have just learned that one of our most avid bicyclists, Larry Skalak, passed away from a heart attack yesterday while traveling to the West Coast for a trans-am ride. Bob Austin had called his wife, June, about an email message sent from Larrys address that was obviously a scam, and her son said his Ipad is missing and that it was probably left logged on and used for the scam attempt. This news is devastating, and we are using the WAB email distribution list to get it out to the entire membership and to warn them not to respond to the scam, if they received it. Bob will keep in touch with June to learn about memorial service plans, and we will inform the WAB membership as soon as we have details. For those of you who had the misfortune of not knowing Larry, he was consistently the clubs mileage leader for the past few years, although he was lagging a bit this year because a broken collarbone kept him off the bike early in the year. In recent years, he rode across the country three times and from the top of the country to the bottom along both coasts -- on a touring bike by himself. He said he was reluctant to be interviewed by a local newspaper because he didnt want to come across as some sort of superman. He truly was, and his death at age 61 is all but unfathomable.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 17:21:12 +0000