Lawrence (Larry) Becker, Roanoke, Virginia, is the newest member of PHI’s Honorary Board. At its 2011 Strategic Planning Board Meeting, the PHI Board of Directors acknowledged his years of service to the organization by voting this unanimous designation.
Larry served on the PHI Board from 2001 to 2011 and served as its chair from 2006–2009. Throughout his tenure on the board, he was active in its strategic planning, fundraising and educational efforts.
His current major activity is finalizing his latest book, Habilitation, Health, and Agency, A Framework for Basic Justice, to be published this year by Oxford University Press. This is the fifth book that he has written in his chosen field of philosophy.
After completing his undergraduate degree at Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska, he received his doctorate in 1965 from the University of Chicago. He and his wife of 44 years, Charlotte Becker, co-edited two editions of The Encyclopedia of Ethics, a reference work by and for academic philosophers and their students.
He taught full-time at the university level from 1965–2001, first at Hollins College (now Hollins University), and then at the College of William & Mary. Since formally retiring in 2001, he has continued to work part-time in the graduate school at Hollins University.
Becker contracted polio in 1952 at age 13, and, except for a three-month experiment in 1955 without breathing assistance, has used nighttime ventilation ever since.