Lawrence Bindrich

Lawrence Andrew (Larry) Cindrich, 88 of Provo, Utah passed away peacefully on Wednesday, December 9, 2020. Larry, born in Pittsburgh, PA to Nicholas and Antoinette Cindrich is preceded in death by sisters Mary and Jane and is survived by sister Margie, brother Nick, wife of nearly 60 years, Saundra; children Andy (Suzie), Evan (Heather), Matt (Monica), Chris (Anneka), Alisa Kirkham (David), Daniel (Anne De Souza), and David (Kerilynn); and 20 grandchildren.

Larry was a talented designer and artist, but his passion was teaching. He taught design at several institutions including Kendall School of Design, the University of Cincinnati, Arizona State University, Kansas State University, and Brigham Young University. Students described him as tough, direct, creative, spiritual, loving, hard, caring, and an influential mentor who set them up for success in their careers because of the design and life principles he demonstrated and taught. One of his favorite teaching assignments came when he was asked to serve in a church nursery. While others would have seen this as a babysitting duty, Brother Cindrich took joy in creating imaginative experiences for these 18 months to three-year-old children. Nursery visitors might have seen him “swimming” on the floor with his young charges in a make-believe ocean or talking to them through a prop that he spent all day Saturday making out of cardboard and Styrofoam. Everything he did was done with excellence and he poured his body and soul into his work.

A dedicated father, Larry taught his seven children, all of them creative and designers (problem-solvers) in their own right, to think. He regularly asked them to consider his question, “What if…?” He taught his children and grandchildren life principles like charity, diligence, kindness, frugality, and humility. If it was worth doing, Larry would do it right the first time and his children all learned this same value – in some instances, the “hard way.” In his later years, Larry modeled and extolled the value of hard work, that the devil is in details, and that there is always a “better way,” while helping each of his children build or remodel their homes.

Larry loved music and supported himself in college as a member of a traveling group of performers where he performed athletic Russian dances and played the accordion and a variety of stringed instruments. Ever the continuous learner, in retirement, he took piano lessons from the same neighborhood teacher as his grandchildren. A veteran of the Korean Conflict stationed in Greenland, Larry was fun-loving and curious – this occasionally got him in trouble with his superiors.

He loved to explore and took his family on countless excursions to see new places. Frequent camping in the mountains and beaches of the eastern seaboard started in a vintage canvas Army tent. After moving from Cincinnati to Tempe, Arizona he replaced the tent with a 1979 Apache hard-side pop-up camper and in it, the family explored the grandeur of Arizona’s diverse landscape. Larry saw and appreciated beauty in the world, even in its incongruities. His grown children remember the oft-repeated injunction to “Look at the way…” followed by some observation of an interesting rock formation, knots in a tree, design of a building, or other interesting phenomenon.

Larry’s children frequently laughed with him about his funny naming conventions like “circular hose-retaining device” and for having them spend countless hours sorting old nuts and bolts and straightening nails (as his father asked him to do during the Great Depression into which he was born). He had a remarkable ability to turn “one man’s junk” into beautiful and functional treasures. Trips to the junk yard often led to him returning, much to his wife’s chagrin, with more “junk!” Always on a tight budget, he could fix everything with his incredible set of tools and the random items he had on hand. He passed this skill and the ability to use tools on to his children and older grandchildren. Each child spent countless hours working at his side, learning how to: fix cars and motorcycles; clean toilets; build things out of wood; hand-pick river rock for a xeriscape yard; paint; lay tile; do plumbing; wire outlets; repair a roof; install and tape sheetrock; pour concrete; supplement attic insulation; plant and care for a garden; prune trees; install a raised mattress and garbage-picked Astroturf in a 12-passenger van; make a bed (Army style); iron clothes; and maybe most important of all – how to love and serve your spouse.

As a loyal and faithful husband, Larry only had eyes for his Saunie or Saunederella. He loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her as a young college teacher at the all-girls college Saundra was attending in North Carolina. They quickly married and started their family after moving to Michigan. In later years, they loved going to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah; supporting BYU athletics; eating Mexican at Café Rio, entertaining family; and working together to create a welcoming home for all who might visit.

A devout convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he “went about doing good” as Jesus Christ is said to have done. He was honest to a fault and exemplified goodness. He was constant in his expressions of gratitude and was always willing to serve. Accompanying a 2001 Christmas gift to all of his children of a divided plastic box of fasteners, Larry wrote at the end of a short letter, “As for this collection of nuts, bolts, screws, and washers that I give to each of you, young and old, I want you to remember my father, your granddad, and his love and kindness and training he gave to me that is in your genes. May the Lord bless each of your families and bless us all to know that nuts and bolts are needed to keep things together. May we reflect on Jesus Christ, the spiritual aspects of our lives, physical, emotional, and [may we] love stuff that holds us together as a family so that we [can] be together forever.”

His family members are excited about the prospects of being with their husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather and friend once again and each is hopeful that they will be able to follow his example of love, faith, hard-work, and contribution. We say, as he often did, “See how the Lord blesses us,” as we contemplate this man’s life and the body of his work.