Larry Worth Olund's Obituary
Larry Worth Olund, 89, of the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, California, passed away peacefully on Thursday, April 18th, 2024 at his home in the company of family and caregivers. Larry was preceded in death by his younger sister Julie Weaver, who passed away in 2022. He is survived by his loving spouse, Anne Hefferan Olund; sister, Linda Meyer; brother, John Olund (Betty); first wife Mary Ann (Connie) Bergquist; children, Larry Olund, Jr. (Judy); David Olund (Kathy); Karen Powell (Brian); grandchildren: Kathryn Bailey (Michael), Cameron Powell, Allison Powell (Liam); and great-grandchildren Brianna, Michael Jr. and Corinne.
Larry was born in the tiny southern Minnesota farming town of Ceylon, on May 17th, 1934, to his late parents Stephen and Ruby (Foell) Olund. When Larry was seven, he moved with his parents and two younger siblings to Albuquerque, NM in 1942. Larry loved playing pickup games of baseball as a boy. As a teenager, he began his lifelong love affair with cars, driving cars back to Albuquerque from the San Antonio used car auction for his father’s used car business.
During his time at Albuquerque High School, Larry befriended the stock and Indy car racing Unser brothers, Jerry, Bobby and Al, before they became famous, leading Larry to dabble in car racing as a pit crewman and mechanic. Occasionally, Larry drove, but after suffering minor burns to his back when a rear mounted engine caught fire, his favorite part of car racing became building cars rather than driving them. Being mechanically inclined helped Larry get a job repairing speedometers for a local Albuquerque repair shop, and he delivered the repaired parts to dealerships throughout Albuquerque on his motorcycle.
Academics weren’t Larry’s forte, but he did distinguish himself in his auto-shop and welding classes graduating from high school in 1952. Shortly thereafter, Larry skipped the opportunity to go into business with his father selling cars, and instead chose to strike out for the San Francisco Bay Area to meet up with a friend from Albuquerque. Not surprisingly, Larry fell in love with the Bay Area and the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland in particular, where he worked and lived for the next 71 years of his life.
Larry used his car repair knowledge and experience to find a job at a Berkeley car repair shop, using the tools he brought with him from Albuquerque. Next door to the repair shop was an upholstery shop owned by a young, like-minded entrepreneur, who eventually offered Larry a managerial role and partial ownership in the Tunnel Road Garage.
Larry’s big break came in 1955, when he accepted the offer to become Shell Oil’s youngest service station owner/operator at the tender age of 21. Over the next 20 years, Larry operated his prime location Shell service station at the corner of Claremont & College Avenues. In addition to selling gas and providing simple repair services, Larry innovated by offering tires and occasionally also sold used cars from his high traffic gas station. As an employer, Larry never considered anything other than the individual’s ability to do the job, giving him one of the most diverse employee groups within the Shell network of stations, and employing hundreds over the time he owned gas station.
In 1956, Larry met and married his first wife Mary Ann (Connie) Jones and started a family with the arrival of Larry Jr. in 1957. The young couple added to their family with David, in 1960 and completed their family welcoming daughter Karen to their Danville, California home in 1963.
Living in the rural outskirts of Danville, the family kept horses, cows, ducks and many other animals. Additionally, the family would go camping throughout Northern California and Larry taught his children to water ski in the Sacramento delta, fish in the many mountain lakes, and snow ski in Tahoe. Larry, always chose to beat the crowds, taking his children out of school on Wednesdays to water ski in the warm weather and snow ski in the winter. At the same time the family pinched every penny to buy real estate in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland and the City of Piedmont, eventually building a small empire of investments that is the family business today.
The late 70’s were a tumultuous time for Larry in which he was forced out of his service station contract by Shell Oil, and also became separated from his first wife. Larry eventually switched oil companies from Shell to Texaco, taking over a Rockridge Texaco service station located a short distance down College Avenue where the Dreyer’s corporate headquarters now stands. The Texaco station business lasted only a few years, but Larry, continued to indulge his love of cars by forming Olund’s Mercedes and Domestic to buy used cars at auto auctions and sell them to the general public as well as his friends and family.
In 1978, Larry married interior designer Anne Marie Hefferan in Oakland and they have lived in Rockridge their entire marriage. The pair continued to grow Larry’s real estate business by purchasing properties in Oakland as well as adding property in Truckee and the north Lake Tahoe area. Larry was devoted to tending his business interests, carefully managing the buying and selling of both commercial and residential real estate as well as continuing his used car sales company. In 1990, Larry was joined in the business by his eldest son, Larry Jr., who joined to help maintain and repair both cars and property. Eventually, Larry also brought in his daughter, Karen, to help with the accounting and day to day management.
As a child of the depression, Larry was always interested in saving a buck and finding the most economical way to renovate or repair his property while also being helped by Anne to make projects aesthetically pleasing on a budget.
Together with Larry Jr., Larry poured concrete, framed walls, installed HVAC systems, laid down flooring, painted and, in countless other projects, to added value to the company’s buildings. Over the years Larry benefitted from great friendships with real estate agents, especially the Giovanetti family, late of Rockridge Realty. He enjoyed the friendship of his tenants and the supportive construction contractors who helped him run his business with a small staff. Larry prized making deals whether it was buying a property or selling a used car and closed hundreds during his lifetime.
Of course, Larry wasn’t all work and no play as he continued his role as a coach, teaching his grandchildren about boating, camping, water skiing, fishing and snow skiing. He was also interested in traveling to visit friends and family across the US resulting in two epic waterskiing trips to Lake Powell to meet friends from Albuquerque. One of his keenest interests was gambling in Reno, South Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, Atlantic City and even traveling once to the Bahamas with grandchildren in tow to visit Nassau’s largest casino. Larry always had a good mind for numbers and his favorite gambling game was craps. He also dabbled in horse race betting and enjoyed the spectacle of horses thundering around the track and working through the numbers to pick a winner. Larry really loved the fast pace at the craps table and he consistently impressed dealers with his ability to keep track of multiple bets across the table.
Having grown up in Albuquerque, Larry had a strong bond with the city and especially Albuquerque High School. In 2006, Larry donated to the AHS Brick Garden fund to ensure all of his fellow 1952 classmates would have a named brick in the garden. All proceeds for the Brick Garden are used for scholarships awared to AHS graduates. In 2016, the Larry Olund Scholarship was made possible through Larry and Anne’s generous donation to AHS for students who have a strong desire to further their education. One of Larry’s favorite sayings was, “if you find a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life”. Larry loved his work and hoped that helping AHS graduates through his scholarship would help others find careers they cherish.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Larry Olund to UCSF Children’s Hospital of Oakland via their website: https://give.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/payment-options or via mail to: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Foundation, P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145-0339. A memorial will be held on Friday, May 17th, 2024 at the Chapel of the Chimes in Piedmont, CA (4499 Piedmont Avenue) at 12:00pm.
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