Council Introductions: Larry Gehrke

 

Larry Gehrke was born and raised in North Central Wisconsin as a Missouri Synod Lutheran. After brief periods in the Army and beginning college, he moved to Chicago in 1972 and finished his Bachelor’s degree through night classes at DePaul University. Larry started working in Chicago as a billing clerk and a correspondence secretary. With time on his hands, he and a few friends worked to form Gay Horizons as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender social services organization. That organization is now two: the Howard Brown Memorial Clinic and the Center on Halsted. Larry began working at CNA Insurance in 1976, where he spent the remainder of his work life, mostly in data management, until retiring June 2017. Larry was and still is a member of the Insurance Data Management Association. He served on its Education Committee for nine years and on its Board of Directors for five years. Post-retirement, Larry is still editing their new courses and creating the examination questions for those courses until the new curriculum is completed, which should be in 2020. Larry and his partner, Roger, met and moved in together in 1978. They were married in 2014, when it became legal in Illinois. In 1986, they bought a house in the Ravenswood Gardens neighborhood and, in 1987, Larry transferred his membership to Luther Memorial, participating as a choir member and as an assisting minister from that time. Larry previously served on the LMC Council from 1996 to 2002.