READERS REMEMBER LARRY LISOT

I would like to add a few words to David Lisot's moving tribute to his Dad Larry "Grizz" Lisot. I first met Grizz through by friendship with David in the early to mid-1970s. David was either in his last year in high school or early in his career as a student at CU in Boulder and would ride his motorcycle to my office in Denver where he would buy coins and we would swap stories. At one time he either brought Larry to the office with him, Larry came without him or one of them invited us to a "party" at the Lisot residence in Littleton.

The parties were legendary. Larry and Dotty invited everybody and everyone; relatives, neighbors, friends, numismatic people, David fraternity brothers, Dan, Becky and perhaps even people off the street. The hospitality they exhibited was incredible, the food from Italian delicacies, to barbeque to steaks, seafood etc. was delicious and there was good wine and beer to enjoy.

Rita and I met many of the Lisot family from Larry's other kids, his older sister Becky and his brother Dan. I met Dotty Sue's sister (It may be Diane) and Cousin Bob with whom I had many political discussions. I believe I may have even met one or two of Larry's parents (or according to David perhaps his grand-parents).

And these weren't only parties for adults, kids of all ages attended, I learned to play (poorly) Bocce Ball and more than occasionally Grizz, David and I (and perhaps a few others) would sneak inside and look at a few goodies that David and/or Larry had recently purchased. Eventually both myself and Rita (and our children) became good friends with the entire Lisot family.

Grizz also was one of the founders and original members of one of the least known but most important numismatic organizations that I belonged to. Our group was named PANDA which stood for Poker and Numismatics in the Denver Area. At its height I think we met every other week but over the years as members moved, got old, or died it has eventually dissipated. Even our Poker table disappeared but over the years many of the most important numismatists in our area were participants including Bill Rosenblum, Chuck Mitton, George Lyons, Hal "Spike" Greiman, Dave Kolbe, William Early Wright, Jack Willis, Bob "Curly" Stanke, Victor England, David Donald and I'm sure even a few I have forgotten.

We mainly played poker, dealers choice and perhaps some crazy wild card games but not too many. I believe Grizz or "OL" another nickname he was called was the one who introduced us to the Booray, a Bayou gambling game. I forgive him for that. It was always a great evening (well almost always) and seldom did anyone win or lose more than $100 at one time. I also believe that Larry, along with yours truly, was an early member of another fun numismatic group, The Society of Bearded Numismatists known affectionately as the SOBs

I could go on and one with my thoughts and feelings about Larry (and all the Lisots for that matter) but I'll had a few "Larry Stories". In the early 1980's Rita and I were invited to a party at David's house in Boulder for his 30th birthday. We knocked at the door and were greeted by a young lady who said, ""Oh hi, you must be Larry, David's father. At the time I was about 38, and Grizz was in his mid-50s. But she had heard that Larry had a beard. I had a beard also and to a girl in her 20's, I looked old. My beard came off the next day.

Larry was a collector extraordinaire and he loved quality in both his world banknotes and cigar labels (and his other "interests as well" I am sure). I remember a sad time in his numismatic business career when he sold a number of high quality better world notes to another dealer. The dealer, a mutual "good" friend in the business wrote a check to Larry ( $5K+) figure and then said, "oops wrong account", let me give you one from my business account. He then tore up the check and wrote another from a different account and of course the check bounced.

As far as I know the other guy never made good on it. I'm not going to mention his name but his guy could have been the most successful world paper money dealer in the US. At that time he was among the best known, he was friendly, gregarious, incredibly knowledgeable about the field and seemingly honest. Unfortunately he was living beyond his means, wanted to buy every nice and spending too much of his money on powder to put up his nose and if recollect correctly on woman who weren't his wife. Not a smart move because the woman that was his wife was just about to finish getting her law degree. And he never called to apologize or try to pay his debt. Larry was terribly hurt, not just financially but of course the other dealer was considered a good friend.

But I'm sure Larry would have said that the good in our hobby outweighed the bad because was always such a positive person. The last time Rita and I saw him was probably about ten or more years ago when he and Dotty were driving up to Colorado perhaps to visit friends and relatives but also to drive through the tiny town of Aguilar in southern Colorado.

Larry pulled into our dirt driveway from our dirt road in a huge Cadillac - certainly not a mountain car. But Larry said that when he moved from Aguilar to go to school in Boulder he told himself that he would someday return to Aguilar driving the biggest Cadillac in the world slowly down the street (there's not much money in Aguilar) waving at everybody he saw. He did that but said he didn't recognize anyone and probably nobody recognized him.

Larry's health was just beginning to deteriorate at that time and while we talked that we would see him soon we never did. Boy, I wished we had made the effort.

My last story gives a clue to Larry's sense of humor. Larry, Spike Greiman, Bill Wright and I (I think it was that group) were flying to a show in the mid-west (I think Milwaukee). Our flight was scheduled to leave early in the morning (no later than 6 so we car-pooled or met at the airport at some ungodly hour. We got to the airport, checked in to our flight than headed to the nearest fast food place to have coffee and some breakfast.

Larry, Spike and I were dressed very causally and considering the time of the day, very disheveled with perhaps some (or all) mis-matched clothing. However Bill Wright was dressed in a suit and looked like he was going to attend the local Chamber of Commerce meeting. It was then that Grizz decided that only the FBI, Secret Service or some similar organization would wear something like that at 5 AM. We decided that Bill Wright was a CIA agent. Is it a coincidence that within a year or so Bill started to have financial problems and left town in the middle of the night. Was it because his cover was blown?

However it was just two weeks ago when Rita and I were beginning our spring road-trip. While we didn't stop there, we did wave and reflect how lucky we were to have Larry as a friend. We've all heard stories about so and so was or is a better person that he is a player. Well for Larry he was a good business person, a successful Chemical Engineer, a fantastic family man but above all he was a great man. All of us that had the opportunity to know Larry, know how lucky we were to have the good fortune to know him and to be his friend.

We miss you terribly but thanks for sharing your life with us and making us virtual Lisot family members. "Grizz, I will make sure that PANDA" will reconvene at least once in the coming months for at least more poker/booray night.

Ian Marshall adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: OLIVER LAWRENCE LISOT 1927-2013 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n12a13.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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