Lutz devotes more time to photography, ostriches

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
(217) 244 -1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand Hot off the presses Larry Lutz exited a 34-year printing career at the university in May.

Even as a boy, Larry Lutz was fascinated by the printing business. As a 14-year-old newspaper carrier in Fisher, Ill., he spent his Saturday mornings loitering around the Fisher Reporter’s shop gawking at the presses – until the owner finally gently shooed him away, telling the eager boy to come back for a job when he turned 16.

"The day I was 16, I was up there," Lutz said. "I said, ‘I’m 16 today.’ "

"That’s good," the owner replied. "You start work tomorrow."

So it was only natural that a young man fascinated by the printing trade should eventually wind up in the Printing Services Division at the UI.

Over the course of his 34-year career with the university, Lutz worked his way up from his initial position as a printing production assistant to the rank of superintendent, the position he held when he retired May 31.

"We saw an awful lot of changes from the time I started in 1967 until the time I retired," Lutz said. "We went from hot metal to digital and all the stages in between. I really enjoyed working with the people, and those people [in printing services] won a lot of awards while I was there. It’s an outstanding bunch of craftsmen over there – probably the best in the country."

Lutz fondly recalls the 41-inch, six-color press that he helped select for the shop, making the UI perhaps the first Big Ten university with that technology.

When a co-worker was stricken with cancer a few years ago, Lutz decided to donate 30 of his accumulated sick leave days to the shared benefits program so employees in need could benefit from the additional time. When Lutz got ready to retire, he donated another 1,200 hours.

In his retirement, Lutz is devoting more time to two disparate interests that have become part-time businesses over the years: ostrich products and photography.

Lutz was persuaded to enter the ostrich-product business seven or eight years ago by a friend of his younger son. The friend was buying a pair of the birds to breed. Lutz’s ostriches are raised on an Atlanta, Ill., farm. When a yearling is butchered, Lutz markets the meat as well as the hide. A restaurant in Urbana buys some of his ostrich steaks, Lutz said.

Although ostrich meat products haven’t gained popularity among Americans the way Lutz had hoped when he entered the business, Lutz said with a grin he’s still "bound and determined to make ostrich meat ‘the other red meat.’ "

And the trunk of Lutz’s Buick looks like a portable showroom, laden with ostrich-leather products crafted from his birds’ hides, such as billfolds and checkbook covers. So far the transactions have been casual and singular, as particular items have captured the fancies of friends or acquaintances. He has been mulling over finding a venue for marketing these products.

Lutz’s other business is wedding photography. Since his early 20s, Lutz has been capturing couples’ ceremonies and receptions on film. In recent years, however, he and his wife, Esther, have become selective about his bookings to ensure all his weekends aren’t consumed by the business.

Lutz also takes photos of nature scenes that have caught his eye: a bee exploring a lush flower, a dove and her chicks nesting in a tree in his yard.

But Lutz is proudest perhaps of his photos of dilapidated barns, some of which overlook the Illinois and Iowa interstates he and Esther have traveled on their way to their cabin in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He’s fascinated by old barns too, Lutz said, and even drove to Monticello in a snowstorm once to photograph a particular barn near Robert Allerton Park that he thought would make a pretty winter scene with the snow swirling around it.