Former Mayor of Sterling and local businessman Larry Dean Fetzer died on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at the age of 83, after a brief illness. Viewing will be held Friday, February 21, from 4-6 PM at Chaney-Reager Funeral Home. The service will be held on Saturday, February 22, at 10:00 AM at First Presbyterian Church with Rev. Michelle Witherspoon and Rev. Tim Hazen officiating. Burial will follow at Riverside Cemetery.

Larry was born in Fleming on November 15, 1941, to Oscar Lenard and Alma Jeannette Lynch Fetzer. He grew up on the family farm southeast of Fleming, he took part in the business of plowing, milking cows and tending cattle and he was active in FFA. After graduating in 1959 he spent a year at an electronics college in Denver, learning to repair TVs and appliances. He then went on to receive an accounting degree at Northeastern Junior College in 1962. During those two years, he repaired TVs and appliances while working at Burke TV in downtown Sterling. As president of the Phi Beta Lambda business club at NJC, he and six other students and a faculty sponsor drove to Biloxi, Mississippi for the 1962 Phi Beta Lambda National Conference in a major hotel. One of their fellow members was unable to attend the conference because black people were barred from that hotel. On the floor of the conference, Larry moved to never have a future conference in a hotel that excluded black people. The motion passed. In 1964 Mr. Fetzer graduated with a BSBA in accounting   from Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri. There he met Elsie Smith, and they married on August 15, 1964, in Annandale, Virginia.

Larry began his career at Reynolds and Reynolds, CPAs in the Sterling Foote Building. During that time, he started graduate school at Denver University and in 1968 he completed his MSBA in accounting. While there he was awarded a Teaching Assistantship, he found that he loved teaching, and the family moved to Richmond, where he became an accounting instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He passed the CPA exam while there. In 1972, when Kent Reynolds invited him to become a partner in the Reynolds firm in Sterling, they moved back. The firm became Reynolds and Fetzer, CPAs.  When Kent retired in 1993, the business became Fetzer & Co, CPAs. A member of the Colorado Society of CPAs, Larry served as the local chapter chairman. After 56 years in accounting, Larry sold the practice to Steve Hill of Legacy CPA. He continued to work for Steve while easing out and he finally retired in 2022.

Over the years Larry was very active in the local community. He was involved in the Chamber of Commerce, the Sterling Downtown Improvement Corporation, United Way, the local RTD committee, Sterling Arts Council, Logan County Economic Development, the Ivan Rundus Foundation, the Sterling Concert Series and on City Council from 2003 to 2009. He became Mayor of Sterling in 2009 and served until 2011. In 2012 the Chamber of Commerce named him Business Person of the Year. He was the treasurer for many organizations over the years and remained active with a number of groups until his death.

He was passionate about genealogy, which took him on many trips into the National Archives in DC and in Denver. Dean and Kim joked that Larry "couldn't pass a cemetery without stopping." Websites like Ancestry.com and Find a Grave opened up a whole new world for him to explore. Larry and Elsie thoroughly enjoyed traveling to England, Italy, Belgium and France. They also took a Danube River cruise from Germany to Hungary and went on an Alaska cruise.

A man of very strong faith, Larry sought to serve the Lord in every part of his life. He was very active in Assemblies of God Churches his whole life and he worked diligently with Gideons to place scriptures in as many hands as he could and in hotels and schools. He loved music, symphonies and theater and he sang bass with the Master Chorale for 32 years. Larry had a warm wit—and a twinkle in his eye-- carrying on a conversation with just about anyone. He loved his family dearly.

Mr. Fetzer is survived by his wife Elsie, son Dean and wife Debra, who live in the Dordogne, France, daughter Kim Miller and husband Kevin of Fort Morgan, granddaughter Adrianna Latta and husband Ryan of Gunnison, grandson Bradley Miller and wife Sage of Wellington, great-grandson Jonathan Latta, sister Jeannette Hammer of Sterling and brother Randy Fetzer and wife Denise of Cheyenne. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Bob.

Memorials may be made in Larry's honor to Gideons International or The Rock Assembly of God.