NORTHFIELD — Lawrence “Larry” Poirier was a true Renaissance man.
Fly fishing, fly tying, soccer, coaching, mentoring, cooking — these are a few of the many things friends and family say brought him joy in his 74 years.
While these activities brought Poirier happiness, “he was at his happiest when sharing his gifts with others,” Denise Petrin said of her late husband of more than 50 years during his celebration of life on Sunday.
Poirier, a Gill resident, died on Wednesday, June 3, while fishing along the Connecticut River, and his body was found near the General Pierce Bridge between Montague and Greenfield. According to his obituary, Poirier was a husband to Petrin; a father to two children, Megan Campbell and Justin Poirier; a brother to siblings Pamela Clark, Dorothy Poirier and Charles Poirier; and an uncle to several nieces and nephews.
Poirier was also a friend and mentor to many, whether it be teaching fellow fly fishermen fly tying skills, showing youngsters how to play soccer or mentoring as a youth employment councilor. There wasn’t a job that Poirier didn’t have, his family would joke.
Always paying it forward
On Sunday, amid the smiles, laughter and hugs shared by those in attendance, photos spread across a memorial table gave a glimpse into the multifaceted life Poirier led.
Images of him with Petrin as a young couple, family portraits, a photo of his youth Recorder Soccer team and a large portrait of Poirier sitting on a coastline with just a few of the thousands of fly ties he would make showcased moments of his 74 years.
Bringing these moments to life were family speakers, including Petrin. She described how the two became a couple after an Allman Brothers Band concert in Springfield. She took Poirier and other friends to the show after he won tickets in a poker match, but he needed a ride to the show. Petrin, with her mother’s red Toyota Corona, provided transportation.
After the show, Petrin said Poirier did something without any apparent reason that “resonated” with her: he handed her a franc. Petrin said she had a personal connection to France, having traveled there in high school, and having grandparents from Quebec. Poirier also had a grandparent in Quebec.
“Somehow, that sealed the deal, and Larry and I were a couple from that point on,” she said.
Petrin said the two of them were opposites in many ways, which was complementary to their lifestyle. Poirier had a “calm, light-hearted and accepting nature,” balancing Petrin’s personality, which she described as “energetic, serious and driven.” She had an internal clock; he felt time was fluid. She was a morning person; he was a night owl. She kept things grounded; he kept things unpredictable.
“Although our personalities were very different, we shared core values of kindness, justice and respect for others, and a deep caring for the environment,” Petrin said.
In fact, while Petrin worked full-time as a teacher, Poirier found himself at home with the kids, working in the summer months or at night, and later becoming a teacher himself at Pioneer Valley Regional School District and Ralph C. Mahar Regional School. One such job was as an employment counselor for the Franklin-Hampshire Employment Training Consortium.
Former Director Michael Truckey, who was at Sunday’s celebration, remembered Poirier for his ability to see the career potential in the skills of job seekers whom he’d interact with, and knowing how to “nurture” those skills. He said Poirier knew students and teachers from across Franklin County in all the different school districts.
“It was a big part of what he did for the youth of Franklin County,” Truckey said. “He was always about paying it forward.”
Continuing his work with youth, Poirer spent many years coaching and playing soccer, coaching at six area schools over 30 years. A report by the Greenfield Recorder in September 1996 notes Poirier’s success at Mohawk Trail Regional School District in “developing his athletes into soccer players, and developing the soccer players into better soccer players.” In 2016, Poirier was recognized for his dedication to coaching, earning the C. Bradley McGrath Award for Distinguished Service at Mohawk Trail Regional School from the Connecticut River Valley Soccer Officials Association.
On top of coaching soccer, Poirier loved to play, too, getting back into the sport in his 40s. This connection to soccer is something that Justin Poirier said he and his father shared.
This propensity for teaching the next generation also extended to his daughter, Megan Campbell. Something Campbell wanted to emphasize was the independent streak he always encouraged her to embrace.
With a beaming smile, Campbell described her father as a “such a weirdo,” always encouraging her to march to the beat of her own drum.
A fisherman through and through
It can’t be understated the love Poirier had for fishing his entire life. Petrin said in his youth, fishing was an escape from a “chaotic family life.”
At Sunday’s celebration, the parking lot at the Northfield Golf Course was filled with vehicles bearing fishing stickers, Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife license plates, and other fishing-related decals. Nearly every story shared about Poirier had a tie-in to fly fishing specifically, with family and friends, including fellow members of the Deerfield River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited, speaking about Poirier as a fisherman.
One of the activities Petrin and others said were among his favorites were gatherings on Cape Cod to fish in the Atlantic, gathering at the cabin of John Morin in Chatham. Speakers shared anecdotes about the talent Poirier had for fishing, with mention of his ability to always find fish wherever he went.
While Morin couldn’t attend the celebration of life, he said in a phone interview on Monday just how fond he was of his friend and the years spent in the 2000s at his cabin.
“Larry would like to strike out on his own,” Morin said of Poirier’s propensity to step away from the group to find fish independently, eventually finding them and astonishing the rest of the group with his finds. “He was a gentleman.”
On top of fly fishing, fly tying was a passion he embraced later in his life. In fact, Petrin said her husband probably tied 2,000 ties.
Greenfield resident Luke Henshaw connected with Poirier through learning how to fly fish, and one evening, he accepted an invitation to an evening of “old-timers tying flies” that he jokes was a “drastic understatement” as the group was “way older than I thought they were going to be” — a statement met with boisterous laughter.
“They were incredibly welcoming to me. They started sharing knowledge as soon as I sat down, and I’m pretty sure one particular guy taught me how to tie flies before I learned his name,” Henshaw said. “His name is Larry.”
To Henshaw, the act of teaching him how to tie flies goes beyond technique. He described that each time he would tie, he “imbued” his work with generosity, openness and belonging. Another revelation he learned from his friend was that fly fishing wasn’t always about fishing. It was the belonging within a community that he feels Poirier instilled in him.
The nuance that Poirier brought to his craft was something Eric Halloran, president of Deerfield River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited, also understood. He recalls their many fishing trips together and reflected on how Poirier never tied the same fly twice, indicative of his spirit.
“I think that’s just how he lived — curious, restless in the best way, never quite finished, always looking for what was around the next bend,” Halloran described. “I’m going to miss him, but I’m going to try to do the things that he did best, and that was really being a generous soul and finding ways to give all throughout his life.”
While stories of Poirier’s life were shared in abundance, a somber recognition of the way he died was woven into the remarks, including by Petrin, who noted he died on the river doing an activity he loved, which brings “great comfort.”
“When the river called you home, you did not look back,” reads a verse in a poem written by Jennifer Bete, Poirier’s niece, which she read to the room. “There were no goodbyes, no farewells. You left ‘I love you’ on the banks. You left ‘I love you’ in the final cast. You left ‘I love you’ in the water.”
To close out the celebration, Campbell led a singing of the song she and her father danced to at her wedding: “The Rainbow Connection,” specifically Kermit’s version, as stipulated by Poirier at the time. To encourage the group, Campbell gave a gentle reminder.
“I don’t want anyone in here to go, ‘I’m not going to sing the song because I’ve got a bad voice,’ because first off, if my dad was here, he would sing the song, and he could not carry a tune,” Campbell said to laughter.
A previous version of this article misidentified where Lawrence Poirier taught. He taught at the Pioneer Valley Regional School District and at Ralph C. Mahar Regional School.
