A well-known employee of Butler County Community College who brought a variety of entertainment to the area has retired.
Larry Stock, spent nearly 19 years as Director of BC3’s Cultural Center. While on the job as part of BC3’s Performing Arts Series, he curated the shows but also at times, sold tickets, transported performers to and from the Pittsburgh International Airport, organized their lodging, helped to unload their equipment.
He planned for performers’ hot meals – “working with local restaurants to cater,” he said, “and arranging for meals to be delivered and set up” – and cold snacks, some of which were “just a little strange.”
“People who wanted a certain type of cereal bar or yogurt or hummus, some kind of organic juice. Something that we normally wouldn’t have,” Stock said. “It was up to me to secure all that. I would actually go to the grocery store, buy it and set it up in the green room.”
The lineup of entertainment included national and international acts. He helped to showcase special performances in the Succop Theater by the Gatlin Brothers and Sammy Kershaw as well as the Tamburitzans, the Pittsburgh Philharmonic, The National Players and Canadian fiddlers The Fitzgeralds.
He brought to Butler the Pittsburgh Philharmonic, whose December 2005 show – one of its dozens at the Succop Theater – was delayed nearly an hour by an ice storm that closed Route 8, stranded the conductor on Route 228 and 20 members of the symphony orchestra, dapperly attired, at a gasoline station 12 miles south.
He also brought to Butler the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, whose Aug. 10, 2002 performance was to shine the floodlights on BC3’s new Succop Theater – as well as on the musicians. Except there were no floodlights. The company with which Stock consulted in designing the stage had forgotten to place the order for the 44 floodlights Stock expected to be concealed by the Succop Theater’s proscenium arch. After working out some details, the lights came at the last minute and were installed.
Stock, of Butler, is among BC3 employees who have retired this fall or will retire by Dec. 31 as part of early retirement options made available to eligible employees.
In Stock’s nearly 19 years as director of BC3’s Cultural Center, the Succop Theater drew an average of 7,000 visitors annually to community performances and to BC3’s Performing Arts Series events.
He told our newsroom that he’ll miss the students he got to work with, students that saw performances for the first time, the audience that came to see the shows, and the artists that performed at Succop Theater.
Listen to our interview with Larry here:
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