Oakdale-Graveside services honoring Larry Gene Spears, 87, will be held at 3 o’clock p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Dry Creek Cemetery. All of Larry’s arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Ardoin/Allen Parish Funeral Home of Oakdale.

    Larry Gene Spears, 87, passed away on July 18, 2026, in Sugar Land, Texas. He was born on August 26, 1938, in Sulfur, Louisiana. Larry grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he spent his early years with his parents, his sister, and a loyal English Shepherd named Duke, the first in a long line of dogs he would love fiercely throughout his life. His childhood was a mix of small-town adventures: hunting Easter eggs at his grandparents' place in Dry Creek, watching his dad walk home carrying a birthday bicycle during the war years, and once trying to run away and join the Ringling Brothers Circus with Duke at his side. His dad tracked them down by calling the dog's name along the circus train.

    When the family moved to Lafayette, Larry found his stride. At Lafayette High School, class of 1956, he played coronet and trumpet in the band and concert orchestra all four years, earning Ist chair trumpet in the All-State Honor Orchestra his senior year. He played basketball, formed a rock and roll brass band with friends that played dances across the area, and put together an Alpine Um-Pah band that placed third at the state competition on TV.

    Larry served as a U.S. Navy Reserve Officer before pursuing his education in chemistry. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), then his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Hook 'em Horns, as he would say.

    His career in science stretched across decades and touched thousands of lives. He began as an engineer and scientist at TRACOR, Inc. in Austin, then led the Corrosion and Electrochemistry Division at Gulf South Research Institute. He held teaching and leadership positions at Northwestern State University and Texas Eastern University (now UT Tyler) before finding his home at the University of Houston-Downtown in 1976. He stayed there for the rest of his career.

    At UHD, Larry built things that lasted. He chaired the Department of Natural Sciences for nearly three decades. He co-founded the UHD Scholars Academy in 2000, a program that continues to help students from underrepresented backgrounds succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math. He directed the Houston Regional Science and Engineering Fair, the fourth largest science fair in the world, coordinating over 1,200 volunteers to serve 1,400 students each year from fifteen counties. He secured millions of dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Navy, the Army Research Office, and private foundations to fund programs that opened doors for students who might not have had them otherwise.

    He was a certified Corrosion Specialist through NACE International, a published researcher with over thirty papers to his name, and he even taught a graduate course in corrosion science at Rice University. He served on the Advisory Council for the International Science and Engineering Fair in Washington, D.C. He was recognized by the Engineering, Science and Technology Council of Houston for outstanding contributions to science and engineering education.

    But Larry was more than his career. He was a devoted Christian who attended church faithfully, and a man who loved his family, his dogs, and a good story. He had two sons, Gene and Steven, with his former Joycelyn. Throughout his life, he shared his home with a parade of beloved dogs: Duke, Duke II, Angel, Prince, Duchess, Laddie, Missey, and Trey. He wrote about each of them with a tenderness that told you exactly who he was. When Duchess, with both front legs in braces, was put to sleep, he held her head in his hands and cried all the way home. He once wrote, "I firmly believe that all of these fine dogs had feelings for us, no different than our feelings for them. If there is a Heaven, they deserve to be there also."

    In the last twelve years of his life, Larry met the love of his life, Sunnie. Sunnie and Larry took wonderful care of each other, sharing a deep and devoted love. Through Sunnie, he gained a stepdaughter, Ellie. He embraced her as his own, providing her not just with a father's love, but making sure she received a good education and the foundation for a strong future. Those later years were peaceful, happy, and filled with family.

    Larry is survived by his sons Steven, Gene, his spouse Sunnie, his daughter Ellie, and granddaughter Kira.

     He was preceded in death by father, James Spears, mother, Elaine Flowers.

    Condolences and expressions of sympathy may be shared with Larry’s family at www.ardoinfuneralhome.com or on Facebook-Ardoin/Allen Parish Funeral Homes.