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Princeton teacher, coach and mentor Larry Ivan dies at 85

Larry Ivan

Larry Ivan, Jr., a teacher and coach for the Princeton Regional Schools for more than 40 years, died on Saturday, Dec. 2. He was 85.

Relatives will remember him as a loving husband, father, brother, and grandfather. He was a role model and mentor for many young people in the Princeton area.

Born in 1932 in California, he was raised in Rahway and lived in Princeton for 53 years. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, he played varsity basketball and ran track for the Sooners. From 1958 to1966, he played basketball for the Eastern Basketball League and the State League for the Trenton Colonials.

Larry was a teacher and coach for the Princeton Regional Schools from 1958 to1999. He was honored by the municipality of Princeton with the Jim Floyd Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the Princeton Community in 2016. He is also a recipient of the Princeton High School Hall of Fame Award and the Princeton Recreation Department Hall of Fame Award.

He was the Princeton Community Park ool Mamnager for 50 years and worked with the Princeton Recreation summer basketball league for 40 years. For 25 years, he was a Catholic Youth Organization basketball official, officiating at more than 1,000 games, and was in the CYO Basketball Hall of Fame’s referee division. He was a basketball official for the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials #193 for 51 years, serving as both president and vice president of IAABO #193, and he received a service award for 50 years with IAABO Central Jersey Basketball. For 45 years, he was a track and field official, and was awarded the New Jersey Track and Field Association Jay Dakelman Lifetime Achievement Award.

Larry was a veteran of the Korean War Airborne Division. He also served as a deacon at Nassau Presbyterian Church for 25 years.

He is predeceased by his parents, Lawrence and Helen (Mahoney) Ivan, Sr., wife Elizabeth Ivan, and brother and sister-in-law William and Betty Ivan. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law Laine M. (Ivan) and Michael Santoro Sr., daughter Kristy Ivan and fiancé J.P. Watters, grandchildren Michael Santoro Jr., Olivia (Santoro) and Cory Onorati, Nora, Mark, and Trey Carnevale, and Gavin Nuttall.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16 at Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08542. Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home in Princeton.