Jets Fan Should Be Remembered for Good Life, Not Unusual Death, Friends Say

[Jetfan13]

It was the sort of wrong-place, wrong-time news that spread far from that snowy driveway on Staten Island with unreal haste, in send-button time, and turned a family’s tragic loss into a sports-bar punch line.

A Jets fan celebrating his team’s victory on Sunday night coasted down his snowy driveway and into the street, where he was run over by a car and killed. Had he not died the night of the game, or had he died behind the wheel in a conventional traffic accident, or had he simply changed out of his Jets jersey, who is to say whether anyone would have been introduced to the late Raymond Larsen?

Before he got on that snow saucer, an upturned disk built for speed, Mr. Larsen was best known for things big — indeed, he did everything big. Big decorations at Halloween and Christmas. Big Sunday afternoons with big groups of friends watching the big games. He would mount a 12-foot inflated snowman, wearing a top hat and a Jets jersey, on his truck when tailgating at Jets games.

“He was just always having fun,” said a waiter at the Marina Cafe, near where Mr. Larsen docked his boat. “He was a great guy. Always smiling, always smiling. Big smile, too.”

Mr. Larsen’s family, including his parents and a son and daughter, spent Tuesday making arrangements for his wake on Wednesday and funeral Mass on Thursday, while fending off the distraction of the online reactions of complete strangers. After several readers left unkind comments about the manner of the death on the Web site of The Staten Island Advance, Mr. Larsen’s family pleaded for respect.

“Actually, my father and I used to sled down that driveway every winter,” wrote Ty Larsen, one of Mr. Larsen’s children, according to a relative. “He was a grown man but had the spirit and fearlessness of a teenage boy.”

The accident occurred on Cleveland Avenue in Great Kills around 9 p.m. on Sunday, and the police announced its details about three hours later. Upon arrival, the police discovered Mr. Larsen “unconscious and unresponsive with severe head and face trauma,” the bulletin from the spokesman’s office read. Any mention of the sled was omitted, but word soon got out.

Mr. Larsen, who worked with Sungard Availability Services, was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital. The driver had not been drinking and was not charged with a crime. Officers worked late into the night, keeping neighbors from the scene of bloodstained snow. The chaotic and ugly night was in sharp contrast to the day-to-day state of the house that Mr. Larsen painstakingly renovated.

“He was very, very conscientious about his home,” said one neighbor, Dennis Miglino, an executive at WABC-TV. He fixed the place up personally, usually with rock music playing for company, Mr. Miglino said.

“He has a porch where he used to move his TV sometimes,” Mr. Miglino said. “He used to burn one of those wood stoves and have friends over and watch the game.”

October was a favorite time for Mr. Larsen, as he reveled in decorating the place. “People were coming from all around Staten Island to see his display — his ghoulish display, unfortunately,” Mr. Miglino said. “He had bubbling culdrons and smoke, he had a smoke machine, he had noise, sound effects, heads hanging from tree limbs.”

He owned a small plow, and he sprang into action after storms like the blizzard last month.

“The last time I saw him, he was fixing a snowplow to help neighbors,” said Betty Fitzpatrick, 80, a resident of 52 years on Cleveland Avenue.

Mr. Larsen’s brother, Joe Larsen, 39, remembered driving after the blizzard with Mr. Larsen. “The buses weren’t running. We saw a woman and she wasn’t looking too well,” he said. Raymond Larsen invited her into his truck and gave her a ride.

It was Mr. Larsen’s role as social director of sorts that he seemed best remembered for. “He would constantly say, ‘It’s all about the memories,’ ” Joe Larsen said. “He wanted to create a moment that people could remember forever.”

He stopped in the Marina Cafe in the warmer months after using his boat, but returned this weekend and bought a square in a Super Bowl pool. He signed his name, “Ray Smile Larsen,” for the feature he was best known for.

On Tuesday, someone left a bouquet of flowers in his driveway, which was still coated with packed and icy snow.

Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s son, Joseph, lamented that the street would seem quieter without its social director. “That perception of him being an idiot,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said, “that’s wrong.”

[Blackout]

RIP

[Vudu]

WIN IT FOR HIM!

[El Gringo Loco]

Very sad. R.I.P. Sounds like he was a great person.

[CTM]

RIP

[The Crusher]

Sad. God Bless. RIP

[NJ]

RIP

[visajets]

WOW that guy sounds like me, and could be many of US. RIP hes in heaven now and hes gonna help us WIN IT ALL.

[HessStation]

It's so freaking sad. Could happen to anyone. I've done so much stupid sh*t in my life. RIP.