Rest in Peace: Lorry Massa

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Gayle Kvenvold

The former president and chief executive officer of the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), Lawrence “Lorry” Massa passed away peacefully at his home in Alexandria on Nov. 22. 

Lorry led MHA for nearly 11 years. Prior to his association role, he served as CEO of Rice Memorial in Willmar, which is now called Carris Health and is a LeadingAge Minnesota member. Many of you had the opportunity to hear first-hand from Lorry about the respect and admiration he had for your work when he addressed us at the Annual Meeting at Madden’s in September. Though weakened by a prior hospitalization and the progression of his illness, Lorry made it a priority to be with us for a short time at the meeting in order to bring his best wishes for the ongoing work of LeadingAge Minnesota. 

Nearly 52 years ago, LeadingAge Minnesota and MHA initiated a path to collaboration and partnership -- before those concepts had even emerged as the building blocks of a shared vision of integrated service delivery across the broad continuum of health and long-term care.

From day one of his MHA leadership, Lorry took a deep interest in our work, looked for new synergies in changing the health care environment that could serve our collective memberships, and shared his wisdom and ideas whether in quality and safety, legislative advocacy, or the building of public trust. 

Lorry served as a key informant at nearly every LeadingAge Minnesota annual board retreat for the past several years, bringing insights on trends in acute and primary care to our planning. He co-sponsored work to bring together our respective association leaders to identify ways in which we could work together to create a better patient and resident experience across care settings. 

As a partner and collaborator, Lorry was transparent and collaborative, direct and authentic. And as I had the chance to tell him at his retirement gathering in early September, he was such a good and decent human being in every respect. 

Lorry Massa touched our lives, helped advance our missions of service and transformation, and in the end, inspired us all in his battle with cancer by his courage and his strength of character. He made the world a better and healthier place. We hold Lorry and his family in our hearts and we will miss him dearly.

I hope you all have time over this Thanksgiving holiday for time with your families, friends and all whom you hold dear. All of us here at LeadingAge Minnesota are beyond thankful for you.