October 7th, 2026 Meeting

October 2026
We continue to meet at the Erie Yacht Club. We are back upstairs! Meetings begin at 6:00 pm with a social hour and dinner, followed by our program/speaker.

Our Dinner Menu:
To be determined

Our Guest Speaker:
Gary Larson, BA, MDiv

Rev. Gary Larson was born in Erie, a 1965 graduate of Strong Vincent High School. At Thiel College, he met his "princess", Sarah. They married in 1969. He was graduated with a Masters of Divinity from Colgate Rochester in 1973. From there he went on to serve the Presbyterian Church in Linesville, Pennsylvania until 1979 when he took a call to serve the Presbyterian Church in Olean, New York. But there was no Church building. It was completely destroyed by fire the year before. The Church was rebuilt at a cost of $1.25 million dollars.

Included was a 3 manual, 34 rank Moeller pipe organ, the finest instrument in the southern tier. Gary pastored there for 27 years, spent 5 more years in Olean, New York, then moved back to Erie in 2012. Both Gary and Sarah's sons are Presbyterian pastors serving churches in Berkley, Michigan and East Aurora, New York.

Gary is the author of 3 books, all available from Amazon:
Harbor Yarns in 2019
Peeling Back the Layers in 2021
Tom in 2022

This is the 5th time Gary has been asked to speak to Torch. The topics were:
The Benefits of Growing Older
A Review of his book, Harbor Yarns
Trees with emphasis upon Joyce Kilmer
Swedish Christmas traditions, complete with pickled herring and Akvavit

Topic:
Why we are seeing a decline of Churches

For reservations; please E-Mail the Torch Club Secretary at secretary.erietorch@gmail.com.