Obituary for Dale Alvin Larson

Larson, Dale Alvin 10/13/1928-11/29/2017 Dexter, Michigan

Dale Larson passed away on the evening of Wednesday, November 29, 2017. He was 89. Dale was a farmer, mathematician, teacher, fine neighbor and friend, a man of constant industry, a doer of good deeds, and a loving, and much loved, husband, father and grandfather.

Dale was born on October 13, 1928 to John Alvin Larson and Anna Belle (Ann) Smith Larson near the small town of Amboy in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. His boyhood farm was nestled amongst the farms of his grandparents and beloved aunts and uncles and cousins. Forever a farm boy, Dale cherished the memories of those childhood days right up until his death.

Dale graduated from Amboy High School in 1946 and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1951. Shortly after marrying his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Heers Larson, he was drafted into the Army and served for two years in Japan, during the Korean War, in a position that allowed him to travel the length of Japan.

In 1955, Dale and Marilyn, with their daughter, Sara, and son, Eric, returned to the family farm in Amboy. Here Dale began the life that blended the best of both worlds: teaching mathematics and farming. He taught high school math by day and farmed by night and in the times in between. Two more children, Ruth and Kirk, were born. Part of Dale’s legacy was to give his children the same happy start in life that he experienced on the Larson family farm surrounded by loving relatives.

From 1962 to 1966, the family spent summers in Missoula, Montana, where Dale completed a master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Montana. That degree won him an offer to teach in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1966. He remained a high school mathematics teacher at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School until 1995. Dale earned the respect of his colleagues and students through his infectious love of mathematics, his belief in the ability of all, his wit and his kind and fair ways.

While in Ann Arbor, Dale and Marilyn made an old Michigan fieldstone farmhouse, and its surrounding acreage, their home. They spent summers at Camp Highlands in Sayner, Wisconsin, where Dale was a camp counselor. They travelled extensively and opened their home as a bed and breakfast to guests from all over the world.

In 2011, they moved to a retirement community, The Cedars, in Dexter, Michigan, creating a new circle of friends. During the last year and a half of his life, Dale endeared himself to a new community of wonderful people at Towsley Village Memory Care Center in Chelsea, Michigan.

Throughout his life, Dale greeted each person he encountered with decency and kindness and was rewarded with lasting friendships. He was a true-blue gentleman infused with generosity, humility, curiosity, reason and humor. Dale’s family is forever grateful for the people of character and kindness, adventure and industry, past and present, who shaped Dale’s life.

He was preceded in death by his parents, John Alvin Larson and Anna Belle Smith Larson and his sister, Barbara Larson Heers. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, daughter Sara (Mark) Larson Burke, son Eric (B Wu) Larson, daughter Ruth (Dan) Larson Bender, son Kirk Larson, and grandchildren Karl Burke, Leah Burke, Anna Bender, Will Bender, and Eliot Larson. Also surviving is his younger sister, Nona (Ben) Larson Pederson, and many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews and in-laws.

Remembrance services will be held in the new year in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Amboy, Minnesota so that family and friends can gather to celebrate Dale’s life. Memorial donations may be made, in Dale’s name, to Macalester College (by mail to Macalester College, Advancement, 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105 or online at https://secure.macalester.edu/giving/).