Posted by Pete Martin on November 30, 2010:

Dear Proud to Be '83, Lara's Memorial Service will be held at 10am on Saturday, December 11th, in the main sanctuary of Scottsdale Bible Church. The address is: 7601 E. Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260. The service will be followed by a reception in the Towne Center on the SBC campus. The reception will be a time to remember Lara as we visit with friends and family and enjoy snacks and desserts. For those who cannot attend, Jim and family will video the service and will post it on their website http://www.yorksafloat.com. Below is a posting from that website on Lara's passing: Safely in the Harbor Beloved wife, mother, sister and friend LARA HOWARD YORK, 49, died peacefully 11/25/2010. She is survived by husband James Frederick York, Scottsdale AZ, daughters MayJean Davis Barnes, Lakewood CO, and Emily Ruth York, Davis CA, brothers Dan Howard, Anchorage AK, Matt Howard, College Station TX and Luke Howard, Charleston, SC and sisters Dallis Howard Crow, Marietta GA and Kelley Howard Daley, LaQuinta CA. She was preceded in death by parents Walter Addison Howard and May-Jean Warren Howard as well as brother Samuel Howard and sister Kim Howard. Lara was born of a military family while they were stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1983, she became one of the first women to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and served in the US Army from 1983 to 1987 graduating from the US Army Paratrooper and Logistics Schools. She obtained a Bachelors Degree in Engineering in 1983 and a Masters Degree in System Management in 1987 from USC. After leaving the military, she spent her early career in roles of increasing responsibility in engineering and manufacturing systems while working for medical device companies Medtronic and St. Jude Medical. In 1999 she was recruited to work for Abbie Gregg, Inc., where she became an internationally respected consultant in the area of advanced technology facility design and project management. She enjoyed a wide variety of challenging and successful assignments throughout the US and in Australia, the Middle East and Europe. She also joined with her husband to serve in a variety of Church ministries including teaching classes on parenting, marriage, financial management and communications skills. She and her husband of 27 years were 8 months into a planned 24-month world circumnavigation on their boat when she was suddenly diagnosed with a primary brain cancer and their trip ended as she returned to the US for treatments. You can read the chronicles of their journey at http://www.yorksafloat.com. One of the defining hallmarks of her amazing life is the extraordinary network of friends she developed and nurtured around the world. There are no words to describe the profound sadness we feel at our loss and the deep joy we feel with the knowledge that she is united in heaven with her Lord and Savior. While our world is a lot poorer, she is receiving her amazing and well-deserved reward for a life lived to the fullest for the King. We know that people often want to send flowers or donations to a favorite charity at a time like this. Our family has discussed this at length. Since Lara considered it her mission in life to connect people and help them achieve their goals, we would like you to consider taking whatever you were going to donate and then take a long look at your life. Use that money to nurture an important relationship or to start to repair a damaged relationship. Go visit your long lost friend. Take your wife out on a romantic date. Go to a ballgame with your prodigal son. Live in the moment with those who are important to you. Invest in relationships. Grip Hands, Pete

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