Larry Owen Shufeldt, age 87, died at home in Woodstock, New York on April 22, 2024. He was born in East Berkshire, Vermont, on August 22, 1936, where his great aunts Susie and Mamie Moffatt ran a dairy farm. He was the youngest of three children to his parents, Kathryn Gertrude (Moffatt) Shufeldt (d. 1995) and Owen Winslow Shufeldt (d. 1955). His formative years were spent working summers at the farm. With his signature baritone voice, he’d tell anyone who listened stories about his pre-dawn rise to milk the cows, the hearty breakfast and “supper” with the family and farmhands and mastering the process of making maple syrup from the property’s sugarbush. Sugarin’ became a family tradition still carried on by his eldest surviving son, Joel.
The lessons he learned, both serious and comical, from the hours of hard but rewarding labor were imparted to all that were close to him. One such lesson described his discovery that chewing tobacco did not agree with him after a worker knowingly offered him a pinch as a teenager and he woke up hours after dark, still reeling in the hay loft with his panicked aunts scouring the farm for him.
He is survived by his older sisters, Jean (Shufeldt) Creighton, 94, of Schenectady, New York and Colleen (Shufeldt) Wright , 90, of Shelburne, Vermont.
He attended the University of Vermont, where he graduated in 1959 with a degree in English, resulting in years of recitations of poems and plays old and new, familiar and arcane, for confused vehicle passengers or unsuspecting houseguests.
Beginning at college and lasting through his 60s, Larry found a passion for stage acting. While working full time jobs in other professions, he always found time to be a part of many productions, mostly through the Performing Arts of Woodstock (PAW). He spoke fondly of those years, and was grateful to have met his second wife, Kim Herald Shufeldt through the acting scene.
Larry worked for over 40 years as an insurance claims adjuster for Van Kleeck Winne Adjusters, a locally owned and operated company in Rhinebeck, New York. His employment with them spanned 3 different bosses and two generations of the Winne family, and he was proud of the company and his contributions to it.
Larry was an avid tennis player into his 80s and some of his closest friends were made through the tennis community at Byrdcliffe, Black Acre, and the Woodstock Tennis Club.
Larry had 4 children with his first wife, Barbara (Lisai) Shufeldt of Hurley, NY: David Shufeldt (d. 1984), Joel Shufeldt of Palenville, NY, Lynn Shufeldt of Round Top, NY, and Jill Shufeldt of Accord, NY. He then remarried and had his last child, Owen Shufeldt of Perth, Australia, with Kim Herald Shufeldt (Woodstock, NY). Owen and his wife Melanie (Mackenzie) Shufeldt of Perth, Australia provided three little granddaughters: Abigail, 7; Emilia, 4; and Harriet, 2. While the distance was challenging, they all have fond memories of him and he loved hearing of their development, accomplishments, and antics. He had different relationships with each of his children, having had the first four when he was a young man in his 20s and his last when he was “late into middle age,” as he himself would admit. They were at his bedside until his final moments reminiscing through tears and laughter, often at his expense, which, with his own sharp wit and sarcasm, is a testament to what he meant to them all.
Larry will be deeply missed and was touched by those that visited or sent through messages in his final days. He joked and regaled us with stories until his final moments. His ardent lessons, wistful tales, humor and warmth will live on forever.
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