Lawrence Lee McCracken

We celebrate the life of Larry McCracken, who passed away in La Jolla, California, on May 27, 2026, after several peaceful days surrounded by the people he loved most in the world.

Born on April 17, 1943, in Battle Creek, Michigan, to Josiah Jr. and Barbara, Lawrence Lee McCracken spent his childhood in Ventnor, New Jersey, a block and a half from the Atlantic Ocean with his brothers Jay and Bruce and his sister Sally. He met his future wife Karen (Heckman) at Sunday School during first grade—their first date was his junior prom at Atlantic City High School, where he went on to be president of his class and captain of the football team.

After graduating in 1961, Larry headed west to enroll at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, graduating in 1965 before marrying Karen later that summer. Together this young couple from South Jersey spent the next two decades traveling the world via Air Force public affairs assignments that took them from Hawaii to the Pentagon to Germany and seemingly everywhere in between. Kristin was born in Honolulu in 1969 and Heather in Oklahoma in 1972, where Larry earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma.

Larry served his country with honor and integrity for 21 years, rising to the rank of USAF Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1986 and embarking on a second career as a communications lead for various aerospace companies, including Raytheon in Massachusetts and McDonnell Douglas in Southern California and St. Louis. His final role with Boeing took them first to Seattle and then to Chicago, where he retired in 2005; they enjoyed city life in their “way-high house”—and their treasured community at Fourth Presbyterian Church—for eight more years before moving to La Jolla to be near their beloved grandchildren Charlie, Natalie and Jack.

After nine years in their condo at Montefaro—during which he would take daily five-mile walks along the coastline and organize happy hours for the La Jolla Newcomers—they made their final relocation to White Sands, where he was surrounded by new friends and (especially in the year after Karen died) a wonderful, caring staff who treated him royally to the end.

During their sixty years together Larry and Karen became world-class travelers, visiting all seven continents and enjoying three four-month (!) world cruises. His easygoing personality meant he quickly fit in wherever they went, developing and maintaining lifelong friendships from every place they lived and every cruise they took.

Larry was gregarious, fun-loving, engaged, and curious. He was eager to master the newest technology, he was an avid sports fan (especially the Padres, the San Diego Wave, and any game his grandkids were in!), he inherited his mother's green thumb, he always wanted to be kept in the loop on the latest gossip, he kept up with global news (sometimes to a fault), and in his prime he regularly read five newspapers a day. He was our moral compass: his deep faith sustained him, he was unfailingly generous to his family and friends, and he loved (and was loved) deeply and wholly. His memory will be a blessing.

Most recently, Larry was concerned and devastated by the forces he saw to be threatening our democracy and the country he loved so fiercely and served so loyally. In lieu of flowers, we would prefer that you all take steps—vocally, financially, or otherwise—to protect the United States of America from those determined to dismantle it. This is the legacy he would like to leave behind.

Larry is survived by his daughters Kristin (Jim Waterhouse) of Brooklyn, NY, and Heather Cohen (Ron) of San Diego, CA; his grandchildren Charlie, Natalie and Jack Cohen; his sister Sally Smith (Gary) of Sudbury, MA; his brother Bruce (Barbara) of Wolfeboro, NH; his sister-in-law Jane McCracken of Olympia, WA; his sister-in-law Phyllis Morris of La Jolla, CA; his niece Leslee Morris (Marcus Alford) of Pacific Beach, CA; and extended family across the U.S.