Larry K. Laird served as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1974 – 2000, serving in Costa Rica and several other Latin American countries. He received his Bachelors of Science degree from Kansas State University in 1963 before going on to obtain his Master of Arts Degree in U.S. Diplomatic History in 1971 and his Ph.D. in History of Science and Technology, emphasis on Latin America, in 1974, both from the University of Kansas.

Laird is currently a horologist, having opened Global Time Wizard, a clock restoration shop, in 2005 in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Laird taught clockmaking and restoration at Denison University in Ohio and is a member of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors and the American Watchmaker’s Institute.

Earl and Eileen Laird lived in Oberlin, Decatur County, Kansas. Eileen was born on August 1, 1920, in Decatur County, and married Earl on May 18, 1940. They had two sons, Larry and Micheal. She worked as a homemaker. She died August 30, 2010.

[Information taken from collection materials and Eileen Laird's obituary in the McCook Gazette.]