Larry Peters Jr.

Lawrence ‘Larry’ Peters spent most of his life in Huntington. He attended Barnett Elementary School and Douglass Junior and Senior High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from West Virginia State University as well as two master’s degrees in Educational Counseling. Larry served in the United States Air Force from 1962 to 1966 mainly in Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam War era.

Over the course of his long career, he worked as an elementary school teacher, a counselor, and an athletic coach. He was an instructor and counselor at Cammack Junior High School. Early in his career, he held a challenging educational position in a school for troubled youth at the Juvenile Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, PA. He taught and was an assistant football coach in Montgomery, WV. Later he was hired as a teacher and a community consultant for the Mansfield, OH public schools. Lawrence’s last position in the field of education was in Martinsburg, WV, after which he retired and returned to Huntington.

He was a longtime volunteer at the J.W Scott Community Center. Lawrence was a member of the West Virginia Academic and Athletic Hall of Fame in which he was recognized for his research on the outstanding achievements and personages in the segregated Black secondary schools and colleges. He was also affiliated with the higher education scholarly organization the Southern Conference on African American Studies, at which he presented his segregation era research.  Larry was a member of the Ebenezer United Methodist Church and later the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Larry loved to take pictures and with a naturally engaging personality and an observant gift of gab, he was a tireless advocate for the best of the Black community of Huntington.