Lawrence R. "Larry" Bird, a longtime chief financial officer of Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes Inc., died of melanoma Jan. 2 at his Laurel home. He was 79.

Mr. Bird was born in Oneida, N.Y., and was 6 months old when he was adopted by Russell P. and Arrah Louise Bird.

The family lived in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and later moved to Laurel, where Mr. Bird graduated in 1945 from Laurel High School.

He worked at Westinghouse Electric Corp. as a drill punch operator and later for seven years for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co.

He attended night school and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1950 from Strayer's Business College. He became a certified public accountant and earned a certificate of proficiency from the University of Maryland Law School.

He began his career in 1964 with Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes, the Baltimore insurance brokerage, risk management and employee benefits consulting firm, rising from controller to CFO, a position he held for 20 years, before retiring in 1995.

Mr. Bird served for 17 years - nine of them as chairman - of the Laurel Planning Commission, and was chairman of the Laurel Pension Board of Trustees. He also had been on the board of St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel.

Mr. Bird volunteered with Meals on Wheels, the Knights of Columbus, the Atlas Group and Friends of the Laurel Library.

He was a communicant for 54 years of St. Mary of the Mills Roman Catholic Church in Laurel, where a Mass of Christian burial was offered Jan. 9.

Surviving are his wife of 54 years, the former Jane Lyons; two sons, Edward Bird of Bethesda and Peter Bird of Hollis, N.H.; three daughters, Rebecca Bird of Earlysville, Va., Amy McAlister of Apex, N.C., and Teresa Dineen of Cranford, N.J.; and 16 grandchildren.