Larry Romrell

"A short while later, I was on the *Ragtime* boat cruising with Larry Romrell and a couple others, taking it up the East Coast to Maine, when I got an urgent message to call the office. Because of spotty service, we headed into a port in nearby Cape May, New Jersey, and I jumped on land to make a call on the nearest pay phone when we got to a marina. When my right hand, Marty, picked up the phone, she said, “Bill Gates desperately needs to talk to you.” So I called Bill. When he answered, I could tell he was perturbed."

"Larry Romrell, a lean and quiet mustachioed engineer from Idaho, maintained the company’s microwave transmitters and headends. Having teamed up with Bob Magness almost from the start, Larry was a strategic thinker, and he was tough as nails. He carried a gun to shoot rattlesnakes or cougars as he hiked five miles or more up the side of a mountain to make repairs on headends, where, in the winter months, Larry’s crew stored venison in the headend sheds on some mountains in case they were hemmed in by snowstorms. Larry is also a great listener—and more than fifty years later, he remains my best friend."