On Sunday, a ceremony nearly 40 years late will celebrate the life and publication of a book about an ISU alumnus killed during the Vietnam War.

A service of remembrance is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Campus Baptist Church, 57011 Highway 30 and will celebrate the life of Marine Lt. Larry Dean Bleeker in addition to the publication of a book honoring him.

The young Marine lieutenant inspired author Betty Parkhurst to write “He Found the Answer” shortly after his death; a book about a man she barely knew in person but learned about through his own words and the letters of those he touched. The book never went to press after Parkhurst and the Bleeker family lost contact. They were re-united in 2001, and the book was recently published.

After enlisting in the Marine Corps, Larry attended Officer Cadet School and became a commissioned officer. In 1967, he was shipped to Vietnam and was there about a week to 10 days before being killed, said Ron Bleeker, one of Larry’s younger brothers.

Larry’s faith was his inspiration and cause, and was the motivation behind his joining the Marine Corps; he felt called to witness, Ron said.

“Before he left for Vietnam, he stayed his last night in the basement bedroom and recorded a message for my parents. He said he was ready to live and ready to die, but all to the glory of Christ,” Ron said.

Parkhurst said she never knew Larry and only met him once at a church conference. That single encounter, however, was enough.

“The Lord was the most important thing in his life and he thought if you didn’t have the Lord, you were missing out. He made it his responsibility to tell people who the Lord was — that impressed me,” Parkhurst said.

After learning about Larry’s death, Parkhurst said she had been so moved by him that she contacted his family in Ames and was given permission to write about his life.

Parkhurst said she collected many of Larry’s personal writings to assist her own writing.

She said she received 10 to 12 letters a day and tapes from people all over who were touched by him.

“It was all so consistently Larry that I got to watch him grow through those correspondences,” Parkhurst said. “There are so many people I’m grateful for. I don’t really feel like I wrote [the book].”

Upon completing the manuscript, however, contact between Parkhurst and the Bleekers was severed as Betty and her husband relocated to Seattle, and the Bleekers moved to Texas.

In 2001, Ames native David Hatch, now a Lutheran pastor in Green Bay, Wis., contacted Bleeker after seeing an image of Larry on the Internet.

Hatch, too, had been affected by Larry.

“When I was 12, my dad took me to Larry’s wake as Larry had been a friend of my brother’s — it was something I’ll never forget,” Hatch said.

In turn, Hatch reunited Parkhurst with Larry’s mother, and the project to publish the book was revived.

“At this far season of her life, nearly 38 years after her son was killed, she is going to see that his story lives on because of this book,” Hatch said.

The book is available for $16.95 and also contains a CD of some of Larry’s personal audio recordings.

“You can hear the sounds of Vietnam in the background; it’s chilling to listen to those recordings,” Bleeker said.

Parkhurst will also be hosting a book signing at Ames Christian Supply, 213 Main St. on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.