Ladislav "Larry" Rejzek

Born in Czechoslovakia on May 31, 1928, Ladislav "Larry" Rejzek suffered through the hardships of losing his father when he was three, growing up through the Great Depression, and then surviving Nazi Occupation during WWII. After WWII, when the Communist Party took over the Czechoslovakian government, Larry saw a limited future in the country of his birth and escaped to West Germany in June 1949. After waiting seven years for his visa, he emigrated to the United States, staying for six months in Wisconsin before heading to California. He met Eleanor Droban at a Czechoslovakian dance in Hollywood and they married in July 1961. They had two sons, Edward Vaclav born in 1962 and Thomas Martin born in 1964. While employed as a machinist in the aerospace industry, he found the time outside of work to build a cabin at Big Bear Lake, teach his sons to ski, and build their home in the Santa Monica Mountains. He went on to become a manufacturing engineer with the Rockwell Corporation on the B-1 Bomber Aircraft Program and also undertook his "part-time career" restoring classic Mustang cars completing seven restorations. Eleanor and Larry retired to Del Mar living in the house that he remodeled where he continued to enjoy cultivating his rose garden. Larry is survived by his wife of 52 years, Eleanor, who shouldered him through thick and thin, his son Ed, daughter-in-law Rachel and their two children Lucia and Kian, and his son Tom and daughter-in-law Michele.