RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Please pause with The Skinny to remember an entrepreneur, innovator, pioneer and public servant who helped make the Triangle as we know it today a reality.

Lawrence Steffann, someone everyone knew as Larry.

Larry left us much too early, dying Monday just short of his 66th birthday. (Services are set for Friday.) He leaves behind a loving family and a legacy of success best symbolized by a technology that links people and devices as never before.

The Internet of Things.

Larry Steffann

Before IoT became a rage, Larry and Reveal Mobile executive Matthew Davis created in 2014 the North Carolina Regional Internet of Things, a users group that seemingly overnight grew to several thousand members, attracted major industry sponsors such as IBM, SAS, Lenovo and Citrix, landed funding for am IoT startup incubator, and puts on events from southeast to Washington, D.C.

RIoT grew so large and across states that they name was shortened to RIoT.

Now, with IoT championed by IBM, Cisco and so many others, RIoT stands firmly positioned as an organization helping entrepreneurs and startups cash in on a technology that ultimately will enable autonomous cars and drones – plus who knows what else.

Larry was among the visionaries who saw those possibilities and embraced them. He was best known over the last several years by his roles in RIoT and the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina in Wake Forest. Research there helped pave the way for IoT.

He served others, really, with patience, intelligence, insight sharpened by experience, and offered a friendly ear.

The Triangle of today – so high tech, so modern – exists because of pioneers such as Steffann who helped create, not dream about, a future.

Here is an example of Larry’s impact:

The story we posted about Larry on TechWire’s LinkedIn site drew hundreds of responses in just a few hours.

‘A life lived with purpose’

His colleagues and friends at RIoT, led by Tom Snyder whom Larry championed to lead the organization full time as its executive director, and HQ Raleigh’s  Jess Porta saluted him in a statement Tuesday, citing his “life lived with purpose:”

“Larry spent over 40 years working in the area of innovation and technology within this community and beyond. He held several roles with a number of startups, from advisor to angel investor to executive/founder, and he served in executive roles at two publicly traded companies.

“As a serial entrepreneur, Larry’s recent roles included GM of the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina and VP of Product Development for Consert, a Smart Energy IoT start up in Raleigh North Carolina.

“Consert raised more than $40 million in funding prior to being sold to Toshiba.

“Larry also Co-Founded Joystick Labs, the initial tenant of the American Underground.”

An impressive resume, indeed.

“Larry leaves us with this passion and hope,” the RIoT and HQ Raleigh salute declared.

“The passion and hope to build a greater future for the next generation. His strength and wisdom lives on through those who he touched. We are all better for having known him and we will continue carry out the incredible work that Larry begun in this region.”

Our society today pays little attention to seniors. Advertisers want the young. Tech companies embrace the pop culture of the young. Awards focus on the “best” under 40. The Internet age continues to evolve into the wireless age with handhelds replacing desktops. And soon our vehicles will drive themselves so occupants can catch up on the latest trending YouTube cat videos.

Yet it is people such as Larry who pioneered the way for the technology all of us take for granted today – and tomorrow.

Here’s a tip of The Skinny’s cap to Larry. He will be missed by many.