Tragedy didn’t faze man’s love of life

Published 10:52 pm Thursday, April 29, 2010

In 2006, Larry Busch was a University of Washington senior, about to graduate. A spring break trip to Costa Rica changed everything.

Then 22, Busch was playing in the surf on a Pacific beach with UW friends. He landed head-first in sand. The Kamiak High School graduate shattered a vertebra in his neck. From then on, he was paralyzed from the neck down.

When the UW class of 2010 files into Husky Stadium for commencement June 12, Busch won’t be there. Still, he’ll be honored with a degree in accounting, a long-sought goal for the Mukilteo man.

Lawrence Taylor Busch died April 15 at the University of Washington Medical Center. He was 26.

“It was very sudden,” said Teri Busch, Larry’s 25-year-old sister.

She said her brother attended the Mariners opening home game at Safeco Field on April 12. A month earlier, they had traveled together to Las Vegas. Larry Busch, who lived at home with his mother, Peggy Busch, had struggled with infections and other health issues since his accident.

When his condition worsened April 14, he was taken to the UW emergency room, Teri Busch said.

“He did not have the easiest road,” she said.

Yet she and others close to Busch remember a young man who relished life, friends and fun — before and after his tragic accident.

“What I most remember are those blue eyes and that laugh,” said Nicole Bissett, who met Larry as a ninth-grade classmate at Kamiak. “He had such charisma. He was the one person who taught me to ‘love the hell’ out of the people in my life, which is what he did.”

Stuart Faris, who now lives in Portland, Ore., was Busch’s Zeta Psi fraternity brother at UW. He was with his friend in Costa Rica. After Busch was hurt, Faris was involved in fundraising to help with medical expenses.

“He was always the first to get on board for something exciting — snowboarding in winter, boating, camping, intramural sports. He lived life to the fullest,” Faris said. “That was his attitude, especially these last four years, to make the most of what life gives you.”

Faris often joined friends on visits to Mukilteo to watch Husky football and celebrate birthdays with Busch.

Randy Lord, a Mukilteo City Council member and council president, helped coach a Mukilteo Little League team when Lord’s son Matt was 12. Larry Busch was the team’s catcher. “He was our solid rock,” said Lord, who also knew the Busch family through Teri’s involvement in music.

Lord reconnected with Larry Busch recently when Busch got involved with the Friends of the Mukilteo Waterfront group and began attending meetings. “He was such a bright, personable young man with tons of friends,” Lord said. “He wanted to contribute. It’s a really sad thing.”

Chase Dempsey was a year behind Larry at Harbour Pointe Middle School, but went on to become a trained caregiver for his close friend, and has lived with the Busch family.

“I was the go-to guy,” said Dempsey, who took care-giving classes and drove Busch’s specialized Dodge van to accompany his friend to Mariners and Sounders games. The Busch house was the place to be on Friday nights, when friends and neighbors gathered for weekly poker games with Larry. “He was always cracking jokes, wanting everybody to tell him stories,” Dempsey said. “He was a funny guy.”

He was also driven to succeed. Teri Busch said her brother was taking a UW political science class when he died. He wanted to graduate.

“It’s a done deal,” said Robert Roseth, director of UW News and Information. Roseth said Thursday that when someone very close to graduation dies, the dean of the student’s department can approve a degree. “The dean of the business school had to sign off on it, and indeed he did,” Roseth said.

Busch’s degree is in accounting. “It will be conferred on him at commencement,” Roseth said.

Teri Busch’s happiest memories of Larry are from the years when they were both UW students. As a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, she was Larry’s Greek Row neighbor. “He took care of his little sister,” she said. “It was a fun time. He was a good kid.”

Last Halloween, Teri Busch said, her brother dressed as Superman.

“He had a good sense of humor, through the whole thing,” she said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.