Divine Word Brother Lawrence (Aaron) Camilleri, 83, a skilled aviator and missionary in Papua New Guinea, died July 22 in Techny.

Born in Michigan, Brother Larry entered the Society of the Divine Word at the age of 14 in 1954. He professed vows in 1961.

He completed mechanical aviation training in Cahokia, Illinois, as well as aircraft mechanic and private and commercial pilot licenses. He served as a pilot and aircraft mechanic for the Society of the Divine Word-owned and operated Divine Word Airways (DWA) in Madang, Papua New Guinea.

Being able to maintain a plane was a matter of survival for bush pilots who often traveled to remote territories inaccessible by roads.

While in Papua New Guinea, he flew single-engine planes, twin-engine planes and helicopters to deliver critically ill patients to hospitals, missionaries to their destinations and goods to the missions. An instrument-rated commercial pilot, Brother Larry eventually became DWA’s managing director and chief pilot.

According to the late Divine Word Father Patrick Fincutter, a fellow pilot in Papua New Guinea, by the time Brother Larry left Papua New Guinea in 1990, he had registered 14,000 flight hours, the third highest ranking among SVD pilots worldwide.

When Divine Word Airways closed, Brother Larry returned to the United States and used his skills for the Missouri-based Wings of Hope, a charitable organization that provided aircraft and pilots to assist medical, humanitarian and missionary programs in isolated parts of the world. His travels took him to the Galapagos Islands, Guatemala, Honduras, Liberia, Monrovia and Tanzania and for a time, he served as Wings of Hope field director in Belize.

He also volunteered for Earth Angel Aviators, another Missouri-based non-profit organization, transporting medical patients throughout the Midwestern United States.