Uncle Larry. Later known as Uncle Airy. We love you dearly. Isaiah 35:10 says Those the Lord rescued….. will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting JOY will crown their heads. Gladness and JOY will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. This verse tells us Joy will chase away sadness and sighing. That is what our Uncle Airy embodied. JOY. Larry was a “Godfather”, (he would use that voice whenever possible) to Valerie, Bobby, Allen (myself), Cat, Emily, and Andrew. He was a special uncle to Connor, Natalie, Megan, Cara, Hazel, Willow, Charlie, Bryce, and Elizabeth. He fiercely cared for the 15 of us equally and with grace. He was a man of Family. Faith. Funny Hats. And an energy singing at a campfire that nobody could out match. He was a Music Man. A Story Teller. No seriously. He had an ability to outlast anyone at a campfire, whether it was in a backyard, Buena Vista, or the various state parks he spent time with all of us at. He had a knack for making a campfire special. Comedic. Yet Calming and safe. You’d end up staring into the flames for far longer than you should. It was Peaceful. Uncle Airy always found the silver lining or humor in uncomfortable situations. A joke or pun was always in the barrel with another in the clip. And another in the holster. Like a true Godfather. The man was present. He was present at our band/orchestra shows and concerts. Our sports events. His beloved church. Graduations. Weddings. Camping Trips. Family Celebrations. He was the “roll king”. He always brought rolls to everything. His presence in this church could be felt even for someone who was not a regular. After we lost our grandmother and his Mother, Mamaw, a couple of us came to the Christmas eve services here and sat in that balcony right up there, for many years. Mamaw was the spiritual rock of our family. I swear to you I could feel her presence here. It was always so cool to see him in his element using his gifts from God. Our family gathered almost every single Sunday of our childhood. Back then it could be seen as a hinderance at times. Taking us away from Nintendo or our friends. But looking back on that tradition as a Dad of a seven and nine year old, with family spread all around now, we were truly blessed. We were so blessed to gather as a family on a weekly basis over amazing fried chicken, fresh caught fish, meatloaf, or even Mexican feasts with homemade salsa and El Toro white dip during the summer. We would move Sunday dinner to Debra’s house because she had a pool. No matter where the family dinner. Larry was ready to destroy us all in Trivial Pursuit. You wanted this guy on your team. And man was he competitive at board games. He got that from Mamaw. She could wear you down in a game of Monopoly. Family Holidays were so much fun. Larry was the best gift giver. Not because his gifts were grandiose and over spendy, but because they came in grill cover or Christmas light boxes wrapped in the Sunday comics. The Virginian Pilot funded his wrapping operation. You know that feeling you get when you unwrap a present from that uncle, aunt, great aunt, etc. and it’s in a weird box, but you smile anyway because you’re thankful and “tis the season”. The confusion has set in, and you awkwardly smile and say thank you. That’s when Larry sat across the room and chuckled with a cheek-to-cheek smile, letting you sit in the awkwardness because you didn’t know what to believe. “Well why don’t you open it”. We never learned to trust Larry’s gift boxes and it has spread through the family now. Heck, I used it this year. Easter was a blast. Mamaw’s house was probably 1200 square feet but all six of us nieces and nephews would squeeze into what was called the “yellow room”. The yellow room was a 6x10 foot room that had a dresser, twin bed, and a small TV. We were incarcerated for 15-20 minutes while the adults hid the eggs outside. When we launched outside, youngest to oldest, Uncle Larry always had a riddle or cheesy joke for every one of the eggs he hid, and even some others. We always eventually found them after numerous clues, but it begged the question, did he plan these hiding spots and riddles weeks in advance? Or did he really come up with this stuff on the spot? Uncle Airy was a Music Man. He always encouraged us to try new things and do our best in whatever it was. Our entire family is blessed with some sort of artistic gift. I would be remiss if I didn’t say he had a hand in that. He inspired each one of us in different ways with his ability to be a musical and artistic chameleon. The man could play anything you put in his hands. The impact this “Music Man” had on our family will live for generations. When my brother Bobby was four years old, he used to stare at Uncle Larry playing the piano at Mamaw’s house during a Sunday dinners. One particular day, Larry invited him up to sit on the bench and showed his hands how to play “Jesus Loves Me”. This moment in time would shape my brothers life and ignited his passion for piano and becoming quite the musical chameleon himself. Uncle Larry’s artistic heart inspired all six of us to try our hands in orchestra, band, dance, singing, and acting. He encouraged us to just be ourselves, no matter what other people thought. A great gift that we will continue to pass to our kids, our students, and our friends. He always found the best times to sing “Sleigh Ride”. No matter the time of year. He would cover all the parts. Singing. Woodblock clippity clop. Horse neighing. Whip cracks. He had it all. Year round. “The Singing Storyteller” would come to our elementary schools with his musical program rooted in the culture of Virginia where he sang about the Powhatan Indians, Pungo, Blackbeard, and Possum. At the end of the show, he would even slip in a tune about Vikings where he’d put on a Viking helmet. One horn was up, and one horn was down. That was always the crowd favorite. A memory that is seared into our minds comes from one of his many trips to Busch Gardens with us. This one particular visit was Howl-O-Scream early 2000’s. The moon that night was ginormous, but man was it so cold. We got to parking lot and Larry told us he forgot his gloves. While we all panicked looking in the ever present “bag of stuff” that always existed in the back of the van, we couldn’t find anything. As he had done before, he stood there smirking. Instead, he pulled his hands out of his coat pockets covered in skeleton hands that glow in the dark. He put his right hand on his chest, and sang “By the light, of the silvery moon”. To this day, we all catch ourselves singing that on a clear night with a pretty moon. My final thought. When my amazing wife Ashley and I were planning our wedding, we knew we wanted to have “live” music as part of the ceremony. While we were going to tie a literal knot with rope that we could keep forever, we wanted Larry to play “God Gave Me You” which had moved through several artists, but most recently Blake Shelton had covered it. We sent him the song and he said, “I don’t know if I can sing it like Blake Shelton”. It was the first time I had heard my Uncle Larry nervous or apprehensive in my life. But we assured him we wanted to him to make it his song. He performed an unforgettable acoustic version of that song on our wedding day that was perfect. I am so grateful that we have our Uncle Larry, doing what he loved, on our wedding video to keep forever. That song has the following lyrics. God gave me you for the ups and downs. God gave me you for the days of doubt. And for when I think I’ve lost my way There are no words here left to say, it’s true God Gave Me You. Larry was a son, brother, uncle, veteran, mentor, teacher, professor, artist, and elder, among so many other things. So, in this space, lets replace “me” with “us”. God gave US you for the ups and downs. God gave US you for the days of doubt.

Larry was a wonderful teacher and a dear colleague. He wrote a song and sang it to me at my retirement party, called "Where in the *** is Chuckatuck?", because he loved the name of the village near our home in Suffolk. When I saw him last year at a retiree function, he remembered it and sang it to me.

Being best friends with his sister, Debbie, for 62 years I have had the privilege of knowing Larry too. He was an incredible musician, writer, story teller and teacher. He sang at my wedding and again at my 40th wedding anniversary party. He loved the mountains and once sat on my porch with a little “moonshine” watching for the moon to rise over the Rockfish River and later wrote a poem called Full Moon Over the River. Mostly, Larry was a family man. Over the years I have been invited to many of his family gatherings. He was always there at every birthday or family event if he was able. I saw his real specialty as Uncle Larry. He was adored by all.

Larry was a very, very talented man and an integral part of the Redford family. He and my parents had a special relationship in their deep faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and their love of and for family, country and especially music. He sang in the First Presbyterian choir for as long as I knew, and it was a rare Sunday he missed, even through all of his ailments. He was a dedicated, smart, witty, loving and fun individual who contributed greatly to the Virignia Beach community, and he will be sorely missed, but welcomed with trumpets blaring in his welcoming to heaven! I know I speak for the whole family when I say, “we love you, and know you and dad will be pickin’ and a grinnin’ and entertaining all the angels in the great beyond!

Larry was a great coworker and friend. He worked hard and always has a smile on his face. His theatrical and musical talents were appreciated and enjoyed. He will be missed!

Larry visited our home often throughout the many years of our friendship. He would sit in “Ray’s” big easy chair and share his stories and thoughts with us. Most recently, he told me that he was blessed to have a wonderful family that always supported him and he expressed his love for his neighbors and friends. Throughout his rich life, Larry shared his many, many talents with the church, his students, numerous classroom opportunities and throughout our community in general. He sure knew how to “spin a yarn” and we appreciated this gift! Our family has known and loved Larry for many years. We will miss his sense of humor, playfulness, musical gifts and telling and sharing stories in our home. Larry, “Fly Away” and Rest in Peace. We will see you on the other side. Joan Redford and Family.

Debra and family, words cannot express how sorry I am to hear of Larry's passing. I was lucky to have taught with him in the English Department at Tallwood High School. He was a wonderful teacher, a talented singer and musician, a terrific storyteller, and a good friend. I am so glad to have known him. Rest in Peace, Larry. Gone too soon. I know you and Bill Pippin are joking it up in Heaven. I will miss you.

I had two classes at Plaza Jr. with Mr. VanNostrand. He was a talented teacher who shared his music, his creativity, and a great sense of humor with us awkward teens to make lessons fun. (Fondalaya Lipschitz stories anyone?) I reconnected with him a couple years ago and was delighted he was the same big hearted and gregarious person I remembered. My heart goes out to his family.

I will miss hearing u singing and playing the guitar. Amen

I was shocked when Debra texted me about Larry. Larry and I had been friends since 1968 when we first started ODU. We have remained friends for the last 56 years. We might not have seen each other often but we always talked on our birthdays. I will miss those conversations. You were a great friend. I know I will see you again someday and we can pick up our conversation where we left off. Rest in peace old friend. You will be missed!!!

My sincere condolences to Mr. VanNostrand's family. He was my English teacher at Plaza in the 70's. What a great teacher and human being. Prayers for you all.

I'm so sorry to learn of Larry's passing. As fellow colleagues in Tallwood High School's English department, we enjoyed many enriching times. I'll always remember him for his warmth, kindness, and creativity. He is beloved by hundreds of students, friends, and co-workers. I will always be grateful that our paths crossed.

So sorry to hear of Mr Vannostrand’s passing- he was one of my favorite teachers at Plaza Middle School in the 70s. I remember him fondly as a teacher who made learning fun! RIP Mr. V

Larry was an outstanding teacher and a wonderful person. May he rest well in his eternal home.To his family ; Please accept my deepest sympathy.

Dear Larry Van Nostrand family, Sympathy in the loss of your beloved patriarch. The earlier note from the niece is so very well descriptive of the life of Larry and shows the love felt for him by all of his family members. I had the pleasurse of teaching Larry at FCHS and of working with him in the school system where he excelled as an English teacher. I also enjoyed his music activities and his bands. Larry had many friends. An outstanding guy. God bless his passage to his next performance home. Larry Shackelford Virginia Beach

My thoughts and prayers are with Larry’s family who meant so much to him. He was an outstanding English teacher and colleague for many years! Larry was a true Renaissance man whose talents and lessons will long be remembered by those lucky enough to have known him.

As I sit here trying to write about my Uncle Larry, I realize that there are not enough words to describe what he meant to me and many others. I was so very lucky to have an uncle like him. My Uncle Larry never married, and didn’t have kids of his own. However, I am pretty sure my sister and I, and my cousins, kept him busy enough. Most of my childhood memories involve my Uncle. He was at every birthday party, every holiday party, every play I performed in, every dance recital, piano recital. He even pretended to support my short and terrible softball and soccer periods by attending those poorly lost games. He was at every home football game at Kellam to support my sister and cousin who were in the marching band, drove hours to watch the marching band competitions (often because of the promise of BBQ from Pierce’s or Cowlings), he was at each school band concert—spring and winter. Often he was just at the house, to swim or to eat, or to carve pumpkins. And we could always count on Uncle Larry to join us at dinner at any Mexican restaurant we went to. Larry was full of quirks. He had road rage for sure—often cussing at people not paying attention and man, he hated getting stuck in the HRBT tunnel traffic. He also named all of his cars. A tradition that he encouraged that I still follow. There are so, so many memories from “The Hill”. Larry with his pup tent (when he was able bodied) in between the campers of my Aunt Robin and my Mamaw and Papaw, and later him in his own pop-up camper—complete with a pop-up porti-potty (one time we spent hours trying to get the damn pop-up to collapse back down). Whenever we kids would play with the hot dog sticks in the fire, Uncle Larry would ALWAYS tell us that we were “now going to pee our beds from playing in the fire”. I don’t think I ever did, but I can’t speak for all the kids. My Uncle was one of the main reasons I went to college to get a teaching degree in English. He made it seem so effortless, so fun. He always had crazy stories about the lessons he taught, the kids he taught. His knowledge was endless. I was always so jealous of the students who had him as a teacher, calling him “Mr. V”. I was never able to become as learned as him, but man was that a great goal. To have been an ounce of a great teacher as he was would have been extraordinary. As I grew up, started a family of my own, Uncle Larry was still there. Now he was being claimed by my kids and by my sister’s kids. He was no longer just MY uncle, I had to share him. He continued to be around constantly. Every dance recital and every gymnastics meet locally for Hazel, every dance recital and piano recital for Willow. He joined us all on multiple family vacations to Hungry Mother State Park and Douthat State Park. The youngest cousins always climbing onto his lap any time he sat down—begging for stories or songs. We were so lucky to hear (over and over) the story of “Old Roany”, which you could call Old “Groany” because that was my mother’s reaction to that silly story. Most often we would just hear him picking on the strings of whichever guitar or banjo he brought with him. Those last few trips to the mountains weren’t as fun or as gentle to him, but he still went as often as he could because he knew my sister and I counted on him to be part of the memories we were making. I realize now as an adult that I wasted too much time. I should have asked more questions, gotten more stories, forced him to put all of those words on a tape so I could ghost write his memoir. The amount of stories he had about the Va Beach of the past, the old hunting camp stories, the way things were, all of it—gone now. Just what is left in our brains and in our hearts from memory. I hope my Hazel will understand how lucky she was to always have him around, and Willow will always remember Uncle Larry as her “first BFF (Best Friend Forever)” because he was one of her first “safe” people in this world. He was a safe and sage (also the name of one of his cars) person for so many people over his 75 years of living. I am sure we will all feel the loss now without all his puns and stories, but hopefully we can remember most of those, and remember how much we loved him, and how much he loved all of us.

My Uncle Larry passed away. He was more than an uncle. He was my godfather, an inspiration, a master storyteller, a songwriter, an incredible musician, a teacher and professor, a choir member, the proudest member of the Frozen Chosen (Presbyterians 🤣) you ever met. He sang at my wedding. He was my mother’s best friend and travel buddy. He was my children’s Gruncle but more like a grandfather. We all begged for one more story around the campfire and now my children want to be storytellers like Uncle Larry. He inspired and encouraged them to tell stories and learn guitar and sing on stage. I am certain there are people he taught who became better people than they thought they could be, because he believed in them in his classroom when others had given up on them. May we all leave a legacy like my funny, stern, talented, particular, lovable Uncle Larry. Rest easy, good and faithful servant.

I was so pleased that Larry sang In the Garden at my Mom’s (Betty Thompson) service. He had recently had hand surgery. He said I will have to practice to see if I can play. A few days later he said that he could do it. He said this is my premier performance after hand surgery. What a wonderful friend! May God bless you Larry! Hugs and prayers to Debbie and the family!

Larry was my long time friend and fellow storyteller. I celebrate his passion for puns and his zeal for music and storytelling. We had many fond and shared memories. Jacqui Horton

Please accept our deepest condolences for your family's loss.