Obituary of Frank M. LaBar

Minerva: Frank LaBar of Minerva, NY, age 85, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on June 16thin Glens Falls Hospital. He was born on December 10th, 1933 in Ticonderoga and grew up on Morningside Farm in Minerva with his parents and two siblings. After graduating Minerva Central High School 1951 he earned a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He began his engineering career working for the State of Pennsylvania’s Forest and Waters department in Harrisburg, PA where he designed flood control dams on for the Susquehanna River. In 1960 he married his wife of 57 years Sandra who he met in the church choir of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg. In 1965 he moved his young family to the Albany, NY metropolitan area where he took a job in the Water Resources Division for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. While there he developed a plan to gauge flood danger in watersheds across the state. He also represented NY State at meetings of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission. He was active in the congregation of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany as a choir member and deacon. During this period, he remained involved in Minerva operating the Christmas tree farm his father Charles started during the 1950s. Frank made it a family affair with his wife and kids participating in all phases of the business until he stopped planting trees in the 1980s. He enjoyed outdoor activities and hiked with his family throughout the Adirondack region into his late 70s. He introduced his family to camping, skiing, canoeing and an appreciation of nature that has been passed on to subsequent generations. In 1973 he took the family on an epic month-long cross-country camping trip across America. Towing a pop-up camper behind a Ford station wagon, the family stopped in many notable locations including the Grand Tetons, Mount Rushmore, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific Ocean beaches of Southern California. He worked at the Department of Environmental Conservation until he returned to Minerva in 1976 to assume ownership of his parents Charles and Elanor’s business, Morningside Camps and Cottages. With his wife Sandy, and his sons during their teen years, he was employed as Morningside’s much-loved proprietor. This was until 2002 when son David and family became the 3rd generation to run the business. While there, Frank completed a multi-year modernization project that the guests truly appreciated and also helped earn the business recognition in the “Adirondack Book” by Elizabeth Falwell. Frank continued his parent’s personal approach to running the business, establishing relationships with generations of campers whose families still vacation there every year. The business employed many local residents as seasonal employees, and he will be remembered for mentoring many young men who worked there during the summer. Even after retirement he could frequently be found helping out around the business and visiting with the guests. Soon after returning to Minerva he decided to share the farm life he’d experienced as a boy with his own family. He purchased a pig, milk cow, small heard of sheep and appaloosa horse. In the summers the family would bring in the hay, first with a borrowed tractor and pitch forks, and later with his own tractor and a hay bailer. It was hot sweaty work. Throughout the year there was a cow to milk, livestock to feed and of course, manure to scoop. He certainly achieved his goal of giving both his family, and the Morningside campers who would actually volunteer to help with chores, a taste of farm living. During the 1980’s and ‘90s he re-opened his father’s maple sugar bush. Replacing galvanized steel sap buckets with a network of plastic tubing, the old sugar house with a modern building that had a cement floor, and the rusted old evaporator with a new stainless-steel model he devoted many winter days to cutting and stacking firewood for the operation and many long spring nights boiling sap when it ran so fast it threatened to overflow the collection tanks. After shutting down the commercial operation he continued to collect sap and make maple sugar on a much smaller scale with his family and neighbors. He served as Minerva’s Deputy Supervisor under Fred Morse as well as being a member of the Minerva zoning board. He was an EMT for the Minerva Volunteer Fire Department often leaving work in the middle of the day to answer a call. He also was Cub Scout Master during the late 1970s. He put his engineering skills to use designing Minerva’s waste disposal transfer station, both the Minerva and Schroon Lake public beach bathhouses, advising the town on the repair of the failing Minerva Lake spillway and helping develop a management plan to control the milfoil weed growth in Minerva Lake. For most of his life he was a member of the First Baptist Church in Minerva, the same church where his grandfather had served as pastor. He sang in the choir. He served as both a deacon and trustee. Along with Sandy, he regularly prepared the church for Sunday services and helped with its upkeep. He shared a lifelong love of music with his wife Sandy. As a boy he learned to play piano and accordion, but his main passion was singing. In addition to numerous church choirs, he belonged to the Bucknell glee club, the Minerva Community Choir and the Millennium Choir in Johnsburg. He performed duets with Sandy at many Minerva weddings, and also sang at many funerals. He was known to burst into song when a phrase in conversation brought to mind a popular tune or hymn. His love of traditional hymns comforted him as family sang to him during his final hours. Family was very important to him and he was beloved by his wife, children and grandchildren. Frank is survived by his wife of 57 years, Sandra, older brother Bruce, sons Christopher, David and Paul, and grandchildren Wesley, Mary Kale, Megan, Matthew and Alita. He was preceded in death by his twin sister Claire, and parents Charles and Elanor LaBar. Calling hours will be 6 to 8 pm at First Baptist Church of Minerva on Tuesday, June 19th, 2018. A service will be held from 1 pm, Wednesday at the church with refreshments to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to 1st Baptist Church, C/O Treasurer, 11 Stewart Road, Minerva, NY 12851 or the Donation Processing, Michael J Fox Foundation, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MA 21741-5014 or www.michealjfox.org. Please visit www.alexanderfh.net for online guest book and condolences.