Larry Skarpness, age 79, died Monday, August 1, 2016, at Douglas County Hospital in Alexandria, MN.  Funeral services will be held at 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday, August 3rd, at Chippewa Falls Lutheran Church with Rev. Elwood Skarpness officiating.  Visitation will be at the church, one hour prior to the service.  Interment will be in Chippewa Falls Lutheran Cemetery.  Arrangements are with Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Home of Glenwood.

Larry S. Skarpness was born September 22, 1936 at Glenwood, Minnesota, the son of Ludvig and Inez (Wanberg) Skarpness.  He grew up in Terrace, Minnesota where he also attended grades 1-8 in the District 27 School.  He graduated from Glenwood High School in 1955 and then enlisted in the Navy in 1955 and served in Naples, Italy as a Naval Aviation Mechanic. He was honorably discharged in 1959, and then attended Moorhead State University for two years.

Larry married Liz Sokol of Saint Paul on October 22, 1963.  To this union were born 2 sons and 1 daughter. Larry worked with Flower City Mfg. in Mpls. as an architectural design for a number of years. While living in Saint Paul, Larry also attended the University of Minnesota attaining a bachelor's degree and then continued on for two more years of graduate school in Industrial Arts Education.  He and his wife later started their own architectural design consulting business located in the Seattle Washington area for a number of years.  His specialty as a designer was for window walls for big skyscraper projects, and included the IDS Tower in Mpls., the Mayo Clinic Building in Rochester, MN., the AT&T Building in San Francisco, the Wells Fargo Building in Los Angeles,  and the Broadgate Building over Liverpool Station in London, plus many others.   Liz and Larry also built homes in Mendota Heights, MN, Fountain Hills, AZ, Bothell, WA and Alexandria, MN.  Larry also enjoyed boating and fishing.

Larry is survived by his wife, Liz; sons, Larry Jr. and Lorne (Michelle) of Seattle, Washington, and daughter Lisa Skarpness, of Alexandria, and 3 grandchildren.  He is also survived by a brother, Rev. Elwood (Elsie) Skarpness of DeLamere, ND and several nieces and nephews.  Larry was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Harold Skarpness and Harold's wife, Jean.