Larry Steven Andre

Larry Steven Andre is an educator, business owner and California licensed Masonry and Landscape Contractor, and a candidate for the 39th Congressional district (which includes Whittier, La Mirada, Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, parts of Long Beach, Lynwood, South Gate and portions of Los Angeles County), where he has lived for 35 years.

Larry’s story reflects an ongoing commitment to service, integrity and the community in which he has spent virtually his entire life — from solid principles passed along from a family with values, to hard work and education as not just the means to achieve personally, but as a vehicle to help people.

Born at the height of the baby boom,  Larry Andre was born to Willard and Lillian Andre in Long Beach, California on October 4, 1954, the third born of four sons.   Larry’s father, Willard E. Andre, was employed by the Southern California Gas Company until he retired, when he began his second career at Biola University in La Mirada, California.  Willard Andre is of French Huguenot heritage, Cherokee Indian, and is related to the Livingston family, who had a member sign the Declaration of Independence, and another member sign the Constitution.   Larry’s mother, Lillian T. Andre, was a self-employed salesperson.

In Larry Andre’s early years, he attended Helen Keller Elementary School in Long Beach Unified School District.  During the housing boom of the 1960s, the Andre family moved to Cypress in Western Orange County, California.  After graduating from Los Alamitos High School in 1972 and Cypress College in 1974 with an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration, Andre was awarded a Bachelor's Degree from Calvary Chapel Bible College in 1999.

Larry Andre worked on one of the last dairies in Cypress.  His first experience being self-employed was to open a fertilizer stand selling cow manure that he had composted and bagged for sale.  Then, during a time when Cypress was a new community with no fencing in between homes , Larry began part time work for Vanderwal Masonry, where he learned the trade of a mason.  In 1975, Larry Andre moved to Lakewood, approximately ¾ of a mile north of his childhood residence.

In July 1982, as a licensed California contractor, Larry started Andre Grout Bag, later known as Masonry & Tile Tool, a manufacturer of grout bags and plastic grout stop.  Then, in 1998, he formed American Short Load Concrete, which he owned and operated.  He acted in the capacity of “Industry Expert” and expert witness for the Contractors State License Board for several years, where he investigated potential workmanship defects in construction projects, wrote reports and testified, if necessary, on their behalf.  

In addition, Larry Andre is an adjunct instructor of Horticulture at Long Beach City College, teaching landscape construction, and he is currently on furlough due to budget constraints.

Andre also served as a lay pastor at a Calvary Chapel Church, and currently attends Calvary Chapel in Downey.    For several years, he also volunteered for Rancho Sordo Mudo Deaf School in Ensenada, Baja California, where he constructed and maintained buildings at the school.

Larry Andre also studied ceramics under Michael Frimkess (www.craftinamerica.org/artists_clay/story_186.php?), who taught him a method for throwing pots that uses extremely hard clay and no water in the throwing process, resulting in pots with very thin walls and the ability to throw very large pots.  Larry remains very actively interested in ceramics to this day. 

During 2010, Larry will celebrate his 20th Wedding Anniversary with his lovely wife Denise whom he married in 1990, and he is the proud father of four daughters, Ginger Andre Dolle, Lauren Andre Andrews, Jacqueline Andre Williams and Hannah Andre.