Published Dec. 16, 2009 KENNEWICK \u0097 Larry Seifert isn\u0092t quite done with his autobiography but he already has a title picked out.<\/P> He\u0092s going to call the book Larry Seifert: He Overcame<\/EM> because his life has been about meeting challenges in the face of tough odds.<\/P> Seifert, 58, of Kennewick, suffered brain damage as an infant and is developmentally disabled. As a child he was called \u0093mentally retarded\u0094 and his mother was urged to institutionalize him.<\/P> But he\u0092s since earned a GED, attended college, gotten a pilot\u0092s license and traveled the world telling his inspiring story. He\u0092s made headlines across the country and has appeared several times in the Tri-City Herald.<\/P> A 1986 Herald story tells how Seifert shared his study methods with special education students in Los Angeles.<\/P> An article six years later tells how CBS This Morning <\/EM>visited the Tri-Cities to document his graduation from Columbia Basin College.<\/P> \u0093Larry is just a wonderful story,\u0094 a CBS producer told the Herald at the time. \u0093He\u0092s the little engine that could. He keeps on working at it and working at it and working at it.\u0094<\/P> Friends say that still holds true today. Seifert works as a custodian at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, a position he\u0092s held nearly 30 years. He\u0092s meticulous about budgeting and owns his own home, where he lives independently.<\/P> \u0093Larry is just amazing. I\u0092ve never met a more driven individual. If there\u0092s something he really wants to do and sets his mind to it, he really, really works to accomplish it,\u0094 said Korey Van Kampen, Seifert\u0092s pastor at King of Kings Lutheran Church in Kennewick.<\/P> Seifert is proud of the work he\u0092s done on his home, including adding an extra bathroom with a jetted tub to help his bad back. Ron Greer of Pasco, a retired contractor and Seifert\u0092s longtime friend, helped with the project.<\/P> \u0093(Seifert) is as honest a person as you ever want to meet and a good, hard worker,\u0094 Greer said. \u0093He\u0092s just a good guy.\u0094<\/P> The Kennewick man has been working on his autobiography for several years. He writes in his home office, which is filled with pictures and certificates chronicling his achievements.<\/P> There\u0092s a photo of him with the Beach Boys and others with politicians such as former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner.<\/P> There also are snapshots of him behind the controls of an airplane.<\/P> When Seifert was a little boy, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut or pilot. Hard work helped him make his dream of flight come true, and he\u0092s writing the book to inspire others to overcome their own obstacles, he said.<\/P> Seifert has had plenty of help along the way \u0097 from his late, beloved grandmother, Meta Eliason, to friends in the Tri-Cities and across the country. He has a long list of people who are providing input on his book via e-mail.<\/P> Seifert hopes to have the autobiography published so that his tale of overcoming obstacles can reach even more people.<\/P> \u0093I need to open doors for others,\u0094 he said. \u0093I need to show employers (that people with disabilities) can do good work.\u0094<\/P> He also wants to show people with disabilities that \u0093they can own property, travel, be independent like everybody else,\u0094 he said. \u0093No matter what kind of handicap you have, you can work around it.\u0094 Published Dec. 16, 2009Sara Schilling, Tri-City HeraldKENNEWICK \u0097 Larry Seifert isn\u0092t quite done with his autobiography but he already has a title picked out.He\u0092s going to call the book Larry Seifert: He Overcame because his life has been about meeting challenges in the face of tough odds.Seifert, 58, of Kennewick, suffered brain damage as an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/SPAN>Sara Schilling, Tri-City Herald<\/P>
Additional news stories can be accessed online at the <\/EM>Tri-City Herald<\/EM><\/A>.<\/EM><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"