Larry Muenchow has a list of past Minnesota Lions Hall of Fame members and talks glowingly about all of them. This past weekend, Muenchow joined that disguised list, becoming the latest member of the MD5M Hall of Fame.
“It’s an honor to be counted among men like that,” he said. “I don’t know if I deserve to be or not. I have a lot of respect for those guys — when they said they’d do something, they did it, and when they said something they meant it. That’s sometimes a rare commodity.”
It was 1976 when Larry was the charter President of the newly-formed Tracy chapter. The retired farmer has served several times as the 3rd, 2nd and 1st vice-president and as president as well. He has also served several terms on the Tracy Lions Board of Directors and has been the recipient of the Helen Keller award, as well as Lion of the Year.
“Orren (Fixen) talked me into joining,” Muenchow said. “I thought I’d better give in rather than sit there all day listening to him talk. When he got to talking about Lions, he got this look in his eye. He told me he wanted to start a Lions Club in Tracy.”
During his nearly 50 years of promoting Lions in southwest Minnesota, Muenchow has served in various poitions at the local and district levels.
At the district level he has served as one chair numerous times in the 1980 and ‘90s and has assisted with other area Lions Clubs in their restarts. Muenchow, who started farming on his own in 1973 and continued working the land until 2023, served as District Gov. for 201617 and as the Global Membership Chairman for two years.
He also served for six years as the 5M3 cochair of Project New Hope.
“I always believed you get as much out as you put in,” Muenchow said. “I always give my wife (Sue) the credit, you know, there were no women in Lions until the 1980s. One day I went into the house and asked her about Lions and she said, ‘Oh yah, they’re a good organization, they do a lot of good.’” Muenchow joins local men Art Marben (2001-10), Rodney Gartner (2014-15) and Dale Trulock (2016-17) on the MD5M Lions Hall of Fame list.
Larry and Sue have been married for 51 years and have two children, Nicole and Natalie, and two grandchildren, Tyson and Tara.
