Larry Bennett, a Third Actor based in East Chatham, Columbia County, got into solar energy way back in the 70’s, the early days of solar, in Wichita, Kansas. He had expertise in refrigeration when he was asked to join a new solar development company, but the company went under when Ronald Reagan pulled the plug on solar incentives. Embarking on a circuitous path over the next several decades, he lived in a passive solar home in northern California, where he got involved in non-commercial radio, then returned to Kansas where he initiated an Energy & Environment Desk at Wichita’s NPR station. In 2016, Larry moved east to Columbia County to be near two grandsons and (mostly) retired from the NPR station in 2021. He became acquainted with Third Act through a bicycle recycling program and was inspired to join TA-UNY after hearing Bill McKibben speak in February 2024.
“I began to really worry about the earth heating up after I started seeing armadillos in Kansas, when I had never seen armadillos farther north than central Oklahoma,” Larry told us. “But I don’t think of myself as an activist. I’m active but not an activist.”
Hoping to translate his concern for the environment into action, Larry began by volunteering for the New Lebanon Climate Smart Communities, where he became involved with a bike recycling program that repairs and gives away bikes for free. He is amazed at how many bikes are tossed out that can actually be rehabbed and put to good use with careful attention from a retired top-notch NYC bike mechanic. “The philosophy behind the program is to keep things out of the waste stream and to encourage biking as an alternative to fossil-fuel driven transportation…bicycle recycling led me to Third Act.”
Larry’s strong sense of humanistic values began in childhood with his family’s involvement with the Methodist church in Pittsburg, Kansas. His father was a comptroller at a small university and he says that his mother “was anti-racist before the term existed.” He was marked early on when a beloved Black exchange student from Liberia came to the house in tears after being chased out of the local barber shop by the white owner wielding a baseball bat. “That’s something that has stayed with me,” Larry says. After moving to Wichita, Larry lived within a communal Ecumenical Institute community that worked on church renewal and community organization. Forty-eight years ago, he married a woman who also had been a part of the Ecumenical Institute. When they started living together, she wanted to grow tomatoes. He was no gardener, and managed to grow only three scrawny plants. But after their first child was born, Larry became passionate about gardening, making all their son’s baby food from home-grown vegetables.
He considers himself a “reluctant Christian”, bypassing much of Christian dogma but believing in Jesus as a “liberating figure”, and has found a comfortable fit within the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Housatonic, Massachusetts. He sees a direct connection between Unitarian Universalism and environmental work. “How can you be religious and not feel the connection to the wider world? Just try to exist without all the plants and creatures that are all around you. Maybe we should pay attention!”
Larry is just getting going with Third Act. This June, he joined other Third Actors demonstrating in front of Citibank’s world headquarters, demanding that the bank stop investing in, financing, and insuring fossil fuels. In August, he participated at another protest at Citibank, this time, supporting those who were arrested. He came away deeply impressed by the level of organization and the collective spirit of joy and camaraderie. He is drawn to Third Act’s Clean Energy and Climate Action group and hopes to participate in similar events and protests in the future. “Bill McKibben inspired me by saying ‘there’s a power in doing things together’. When there are actions with a group of people, I’ll put my body into that!”