'Meat and potatoes, not a French restaurant'

Larry Torno

With Larry Torno, you got "meat and potatoes, not a French restaurant."

That's how longtime friend Paul Durgin remembers the lifetime Lebanon resident and longtime Lebanon road commissioner who died Saturday of an untreatable form of cancer.

"Larry loved taking care of Lebanon's roads," Durgin said. "It was his life."

Durgin said he and Larry visited with each other's families two or three times a week for the past 20 years and he would be there sometimes when a Lebanon resident would call up mad about some road issue.

He said Larry never lost his cool no matter what the circumstance and always treated everyone with respect.

"They would sometimes call up mad, and I would never hear him raise his voice," Durgin said. "He would just tell them exactly what he could do to help the situation if he could. He was the most honest man I ever knew."

Larry had wanted to be road commissioner for years, said Keith Stuart of Stuart, Torno and Stuart (STS), where Larry began working as a teenager at the company founded by his dad, Charlie Torno, and George and Brooks Stuart.

Larry began as a laborer and worked his way up to heavy equipment operator, operating excavators, front-end loaders and graders.

"He was a good guy, extremely reliable and he developed a lot of skills over the years," said Keith Stuart.

Larry worked at STS until he finally got the Lebanon road commissioner spot, something he had dreamed of doing for years and finally achieved.

Former Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood worked with Larry as a fellow firefighter and when he was road commissioner.

"He was a good firefighter and a good road commissioner," said Wood. "He was there when you needed him."

Wood said that when Larry became road boss he was always very quick to help out Lebanon Fire with whatever they needed, especially in the cold winters, from keeping the station on Upper Cross Road well plowed to laying down sand if there'd been ice buildup on a road after fighting a fire.

"He handled us well that way," remembered Wood, adding Larry's crews were always quick with road barricades in the event of downed power lines on Lebanon roads during storms.

What Durgin remembers mostly about Larry is that he was just a regular guy, a guy who would do anything for anybody.

"With Larry, what you saw was what you got," Durgin said.