[3] Lawrie's father was a lifelong friend of baseball player, manager and executive George Stallings, for whom he named his son.

[1] By the time he was in his late teens, Lawrie was being mentored by Braves players Frank Gibson and Johnny Evers, and was permitted to take part in spring training workouts and scrimmages.

[1] By the early 1930s, Lawrie was well known as an American Legion Baseball player, and he and his father George were both summer employees of the Braves in Boston.

[6] Lawrie was also selected for the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, and was a member of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

[20] Lawrie's post-War College assignments included a posting as chief of the army section of Joint United States Military Advisory Group Thailand.

[24][25] In 1962, Lawrie was assigned to United States European Command as director of personnel at the headquarters element based in Paris.

In early 1963, he was promoted to major general and assigned as deputy chief of staff for personnel (G-1) at the European Command's main headquarters in Heidelberg.

[31][32] Lawrie developed a reputation as a photographer while still in uniform, and he studied photography with Yoichi Okamoto in Washington, D.C., at the United States Department of Agriculture Photographic School in Washington, D.C., the Leica Academies in New York City and Wetzlar, Germany, and under John Doscher at the Country School of Photography in South Woodstock, Vermont.

[34] In 1971, he was made an associate of the Photographic Society of America in recognition of his work to advance photography as an art form, including his efforts to document rural scenes in Texas before they were lost to population growth and continued urbanization.