Obituary Notices: Capt. Larry Starker

Capt. Larry Starker, 79, of Aurora, Ind., died October 17. He started his long river career on the Aurora ferry in 1957. The next year, he joined The Ohio River Company, where he worked for the next 20 years. He then went to work for McGinnis/McNational, where he worked until he retired in 2005. During his career, he worked as a deckhand, tankerman, chief engineer and captain; for a while he co-owned a towboat that serviced Aurora-area docks and fleets. Capt. John Gordon, who informed the WJ of Starker’s passing, called Starker his mentor, and wrote, “A lot of the older captains say Larry was the only true riverman they knew. P.S., no disrespect to the other rivermen out there.”