Gets your books at Charles Village Festival/Larry Krause dies

Friends,

 

I am at the Charles Village Festival on Sunday until around 8 PM selling books, buttons, bumperstickers, videos, vinyl and some DVDs.  My tables are at 30th & N. Charles Streets.  If you want to donate any books, bring them over.  

 

Kagiso,

 

Max

www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-larry-krause-20100604,0,6936538.story

baltimoresun.com

Laurence Neil Krause, publisher, dies

Publisher of the Baltimore Chronicle printed news of the city's neighborhoods and had an interest in minerals

By Jacques Kelly, The Baltimore Sun

11:22 PM EDT, June 4, 2010

Laurence Neil Krause, who founded, edited and published a series of community newspapers, died of cancer Wednesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 65 and lived in Towson.

Born in Burlington, Iowa, he and his family moved to Baltimore in 1952 when his father took a position at Edgewood Arsenal. A 1963 Forest Park High School graduate, he attended the University of Maryland, College Park until enlisting in the Air Force. He later completed his studies at the Community College of Baltimore and Towson University.

He taught middle school social studies in the Baltimore County public schools. While teaching, he earned a master's degree in urban education from Morgan State University.

"He chafed at the bureaucracy of the public education system and, when the opportunity arose to buy an old-time printing business on West Madison Street, he changed his career course," said his wife, Alice Cherbonnier. "After he leased one of the first phototypesetting machines, he offered to stake a group of aspiring writers — primarily socially concerned teachers and social workers — to typesetting services for several months to help get a community newspaper started."

His City Dweller made its debut in April 1973. "Larry found that many people wanted to write, but few were able or willing to sell the advertisements needed to keep the paper afloat, so he stepped into that role," his wife said. "He said that very early on, he realized how difficult publishing an urban community paper would be, but he also realized that this might be the great opportunity and challenge of his life."

He continued publishing the paper with the help of local writers and editors. Finally, by default, he became the editor himself.

"Larry was committed to Baltimore's neighborhoods. His idea of news was not crime or real estate transactions," said Alex Hooke, a Stevenson University professor who wrote for the paper in the mid-1970s. "I didn't have a car and I rode my bicycle to the office in a Maryland Avenue rowhouse. There was a brothel upstairs. We sold ads and delivered the paper."

Mr. Hooke recalled that the editor encouraged him and passed on tickets to events at the Lyric Opera House and to musical performances.

In 1976, his future wife bought into the newspaper. The couple, who married in 1982, changed their publication's name to the Baltimore Chronicle.

His wife said that Community Development Block Grants made it possible for struggling community merchants associations to advertise, and they founded two other newspapers, The Monument Street News and Oldtown News, to serve these communities. They also took over the Govanstowne Courier and founded two magazines, Food & Fine Living and the Baltimore Review. In 1978, they added a typesetting and graphic design business, Allegro Communications Inc., with a partner.

Mr. Krause worked with a progression of high school and college interns. He credited the merchants of Hampden with making the newspaper's continued existence possible, even though some of them disagreed with his forthright progressive editorials and his anti-war stance rooted in his Quaker beliefs.

In 1982, Mr. Krause initiated a magazine, The Baltimore Review, to fill what he saw as a journalistic void: coverage of history in the making. The Review was published through 1991.

Mr. Krause also had an interest in minerals and had a sideline company, Octahedron Minerals. For nearly 30 years he participated in mineral shows sponsored by gem and lapidary clubs.

"Minerals reflected his love of beautiful things and his appreciation for life," his wife said. "He composed poetry and took nature photographs, especially of trees."

Mr. Krause, whose family was Jewish, developed an affinity for Quakers. He was a founder, along with the late Helen Hollingsworth, of the Arts & Peace Festival, held annually for several years during the 1980s.

His last print ventures ended in 2003, but he remained active in the nonprofit Baltimore News Network, which often discusses peace and social justice issues.

Mr. Krause was a past president of the Baltimore Mineral Society. He also served on the boards of the National Emergency Medical Association and Ten Thousand Villages. He enjoyed Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts.

A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. June 19 at Stony Run Friends Meetinghouse, 5114 N. Charles St.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Krause is survived by a stepson, Mitchell Strohminger of Montreal; a brother, Michael Krause of Silver Spring; a sister, Judith Bernardi of Washington, D.C.; and two nieces and two nephews. His marriage to Regina Schmidt ended in divorce.

jacques.kelly@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2010, The Baltimore Sun