When he was 10, a cousin gave Larry Ronald Crouse and his twin brother model airplanes that were propelled by rubber wands.
For Mr. Crouse, tinkering with model airplanes became a lifelong hobby. He built planes, repaired them and flew the remote-controlled models. He knew how to take off, land and perform stunts. He crashed his share, too, said Gary Donald Crouse, his identical twin brother from Lawrenceville.
"It took Larry about 12 or 20 crashes to get the hang of it," he said. "You're going to crash them if you fly them; that's part of it. But he got good at flying them. Real good at it. I got into it, but Larry got into it a whole lot more."
Mr. Crouse was diagnosed with diabetes about 10 years ago. The disease destroyed his kidneys so he underwent dialysis treatment three times a week. His health deteriorated further due to hepatitis C, a liver disease.
On Easter Sunday, Mr. Crouse died from complications of his illnesses at Parkwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Snellville. He was 56. A funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Crowell Brothers Peachtree Chapel Funeral Home in Norcross.
Mr. Crouse attended DeKalb County's Cross Keys High and made a living out of painting and carpentry. Relatives praised his woodworking skills, saying he gave flair to ordinary pieces and turned them into artful gems.
"He was always wanting to build such and such," his brother said. "There's a doghouse in the garage right now that he started. It's real fancy. He was a master carpenter."
The family lived in San Diego when Mr. Crouse, then a high school junior, won an award for constructing a model yacht that competed in the city's 1968 regatta. In later years, he put his talent to use crafting model airplanes.
"His whole room was full of models that he had built," said his mother, Patricia Patrick Milam of Buckhead. "Every year, I would give him a replica of a vintage airplane for Christmas. He was really into it."
In the late 1990s, Mr. Crouse found out he was a hepatitis C carrier after he saw a doctor for body sores. The disease had lain dormant nearly 30 years. Relatives suspect he contracted the disease from unsterilized tools used when he got a tattoo of country western star Hank Williams Jr. in 1980.
"I am concerned when I see these kids with all these tattoos," his mother said. "Most will be okay, but down the road, some may suffer from a malady like my son did."
Additional survivors include a stepfather, Edward L. Milam III of Buckhead; a sister, Cheryl Crouse Hinton of Winder; two half-brothers, John Patrick Dunn of Lilburn and Zane Crouse of Houston, Texas.
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