Local Businessman and Public Safety Officer Passes Away
Funeral services will be held Saturday for long time Battle Creek businessman and public safety officer Larry Bair. Bair passed away Sunday November 3rd after being ill recently. He was 71.
Bair grew up in southwest Kalamazoo County, and served in Vietnam as a Navy Corpsman, helping veterans in medical facilities at Bethesda and Chicago, before returning home. Bair and his wife, Cindy, bought the old Pittsburgh Paint Store at 53 East Michigan. They renamed it “Bair’s Decorating Center” and moved the business from downtown to Columbia Avenue in 1992. That’s about the time Larry began many years of service in public safety. He joined the Newton Township Fire Department and shortly after that the Emmett Township Department of Public Safety. He was part of a team of officers that went into schools during fire prevention week and taught fire safety to the students. Bair served both departments for 25 years before retiring. Since the 2009 opening of FireKeepers Casino he was employed as a Security/EMT Officer.
Visitation is Friday at the Battle Creek Chapel of Kempf Family Funeral and Cremation Services at 2838 Capital Avenue SW, from 2PM-4PM and 6PM-8PM. Services to celebrate his life will be held at the Battle Creek Chapel of Kempf’s on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 11AM .
Read the full obituary here.
More From WKMI
