It was difficult to overlook the tall man with the commanding voice and owl-like eyebrows, as one of his former students described him.

But Emmet "Tony" Larimer, a longtime local actor and director and educator, was noted as a gentle, elegant man with an emotional presence as powerful as his physical stature.

Larimer died on Tuesday afternoon after a battle with lung cancer, which had been diagnosed in August 2007. Phones rang nonstop Wednesday at the Larimers' Salt Lake City home as friends called to offer condolences.

"He was incredibly loving. He was devoted to the arts and education. Those were his major passions in life," said son Tim Larimer, turning to his stepmother and Larimer's wife, Marie, for input. "He was charming, colorful, and a joy to be with," Marie Larimer added.

Larimer was raised in Evanston, Ill., received an undergraduate degree from Colorado's Western State College, and then attended graduate school at the University of Wyoming. In 1958, he first moved to Utah to teach at what was then St. Mark's School for Boys, and continued at the school once it merged with Rowland Hall School for Girls. In the late 1960s, he and his first wife, Mary, and son, Tim, moved to Jacksonville, Fla.

The family moved back to Utah in 1978, a year after his first wife died of cancer. Larimer returned to Rowland Hall-St. Mark's to teach English and to direct the school's theater program. He married Marie Newman in 1984, whom he met while she was working as a secretary at the private school.

All told, he taught at the school for 31 years. He retired in 1994, but continued to serve as chair of the school's alumni association and on the board of trustees. His contributions were honored by the school when a newly renovated auditorium was named the Larimer Center for the Performing Arts.

Longtime friend Anne Cullimore Decker met Larimer in 1968, when they acted together in Pioneer Theatre Company's "A Delicate Balance," and the pair later went on to share the stage in dozens of local productions.

When Decker applied for the graduate program at the University of Utah, she asked Larimer to act with her in her audition piece. "He had given up theater," she said. "That brought him back to theater. He said: 'Thank you for giving me back my life.'"

Throughout his life, his acting and directing credits were as varied as his interests. Friends say there wasn't a genre of theater Larimer hadn't participated in.

Nancy Borgenicht, interim executive producer at Salt Lake Acting Company, remembered Larimer first as her brothers' school teacher. Later, the pair worked together at the fledgling theater company. "He was the kind of presence that allowed you to think about doing important work," a somber Borgenicht said. "So you could think about giving to the community 'Death of Salesman,' 'The Ride Down Mount Morgan,' 'The Road to Mecca,' 'Hysteria.' It's hard to think about how you would have done plays like that without him. We all would have been less for it."

Borenicht said it was Larimer and his wife, Marie, who found the building where the theater company is now located. "We owe him a lot," Borgenicht said.

A service of remembrance will be held at St. Mark's Cathedral, 231 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, on Saturday at 1 p.m. Following the service, there will be a party celebrating Larimer's life at the church.