Larry (Lawrence) Picco

June 6, 1955—July 4, 2026

It is with broken hearts we announce the sudden passing of Larry (Lawrence) Samuel Picco on July 4, 2026, at James Paton Memorial Hospital, Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. He was 71 years old. 

An affectionate husband to Christina (Benoit) Picco, a devoted father to Allison and Colin; stalwart brother to Robert Cyril Picco who passed away just 21 months ago (Brenda, Mark and Carolyn), Gail Picco (Katie and Evan) and Eileen Picco (Bob McKay, Scott, Hayley and Jayne); steadfast cousin to Maxine Newman (Leonard).

Also leaving to mourn a large and loving group of brothers and sisters-in-law including Joan (Andy), Felix (Sylvia), Phonse (Beverly), Theresa (Dale), Paul (Sandy), Cyril, Alvin (Pam), Cecilia (Mikael) and Herman (Anne), as well as a large circle of nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews, cousins and, with love, recently deceased brother-in-law Bernie Benoit. 

Larry was loved by a wide circle of family and friends including lifetime family friends Jeff, Guy and Karen Furneaux, and their parents, Trudy and Doug Furneaux (now deceased) and children, Nick and Andrew (Andrew now also deceased).  Comprising a huge and welcoming second family for Larry, were Gail and Roy Morgan, along with their daughters Gill and Jenny, and their many cousins, aunts, and uncles. 

Crew 9 from NavCan’s Air Traffic Training Centre in Cornwall became lifelong friends and work colleagues of Larry. Together, at Gander’s Air Traffic Control  Centre, they helped land planes in the aftermath of the collapse of World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.

Born on June 6, 1955, the son of a Bell Island school teacher Lily Mabel Kathleen Brown, of Tacks Beach, Placentia Bay, and Robert James Picco of Portugal Cove, an able seaman in the Royal Navy who crewed minesweepers for the entire of World War II. Larry, at the tender age of four, narrowly escaped an early slip off this mortal coil when he contracted a severe case of whooping cough. His life was saved by an emergency tracheotomy, ever after becoming the boy that had to have a “tube in his throat.”  

Growing up, Larry wandered the woods behind his family’s house and across the road behind Furneaux’s field with his pack of friends. He grew up with a physical freedom that doesn’t come so readily to young people these days. At the root of it, Larry was a kind, playful and bookish child who did well in school, capping it off by being part Prince of Wales’ 1972 Reach for the Top team. Larry could turn any part of a daily routine, like getting breakfast ready, into a fun activity. He liked playing games with his sisters, taught them how to drive and worked on the oil truck with his father and brother.  

Fueled by a childhood enthusiasm for model planes and keenly observing air shows and the night sky, Larry built a full career in aviation becoming an Air Traffic Controller at Gander Centre in 1983. That same year, he married his life partner, Christina – adored by Larry’s family from the start —and they moved to Gander, Larry as a freshly minted air traffic controller and Christina as a schoolteacher. When Larry checked out as a certified controller, they bought their home and settled in Gander. Allison was born in 1987 and Colin in 1989 giving Larry and Christina a focus for their love and creative energy.  

Speculative fiction and F1 car racing were two of his Larry’s lifetime passions. For his entire adult life, he was a loyal subscriber to the annual Best of Science Fiction series and read widely in that genre (and other genres, as he continued to be bookish.) For many years, he travelled to the Montreal F1 Grand Prix and met with his friends in the Babbling Book Racing Club where they took their seats in the grandstands at Le circuit Gilles-Villeneuve’s hair-pin turn. Even through his years of shift work, by recording the race for a time to be viewed later, he rarely missed a televised Grand Prix. In order not to inadvertently give away the result, conversations often started with “have you seen the race yet?” 

Enjoying a youthful and active retirement, Larry entered his volunteer era, the Rotary Club of Gander, Gambo and Area Employment Corporation and Gander’s Aviation Museum.  He and Christina were able to spend many years visiting family and friends and continuing their life of adventure, taking up temporary but regular residence with friends in Herring Neck – the Lobster Boil kicking off the spring and summer season. 

If “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return,” as Nat King Cole said in his first ever recorded song called Nature Boy, Larry learned that lesson early and well.

If you’d like to make a donation in Larry’s memory, please consider the Rotary Club of Gander who are at the heart of the Gander community, particularly in the development Cobb’s Pond. 

Visitations are being held at Stacey’s Funeral Home, 60 Roe Avenue, Gander, NL A1V 2E1 Tuesday, July 7th, 7 pm to 9 pm, and Wednesday, July 8th, 2 pm to 4.