MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) — For more than 50 years of his life, Larry Schoff could be called “Mister Efficiency.” It all started when he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1984 rising to the rank of Major.
“I enjoyed it because something new was happening everyday. It wasn’t the same routine everyday. You had new challenges face you every week, every month and every year. Something new would come up,” said Schoff.
Larry was given the green light to take chances by his commanders. One of those plans came when he was stationed in the Philippines in an engineers unit. When he retired from the Air Force in 1984, he was called upon for another role. Larry became the director of facilities and transportation for Montgomery County Public Schools. Schoff made on big change that helped with the efficiency of the school buses used.
“I got involved and saw that there were a lot of inefficiency and one of which was the fuel used by the schools and their buses. The State of Virginia at the time was one of three states in the country that had not authorized diesel buses for purchase in the United States and so I took action to get that changed and it was changed,” said Schoff.
With Larry’s time in the military, Montgomery County Schools and the U.S. Government he has an efficient philosophy he still uses today. “It is the little things that kill you and the waist that you have. Not the big things. Because the big things you can see. It is the little things that you don’t see that you take action on that will result in big energy savings,” said Schoff.
Schoff was asked to do work with the Department of Energy, working with a program called energy smart schools. It also selected him to assist European schools to be more energy efficient.
