Arnold Lewis Larsen

Arnold Lewis Larsen was born on either September 6th or 7th 1927 depending on who you asked. His mother Minna (Rasmussen) Larsen and father Lewis Christian Larsen delivered him at home and the doctor, who arrived the next day, wrote the wrong day as Arnold’s birthday. Minna and Lewis had not picked out a name for Arnold yet, so his original birth certificate in addition to having the wrong date had his name as boy no name Larsen.

His youth was spent on an 80 acre farm near Fiscus Iowa. Arnold grew up witnessing great changes to agriculture in America. He started working with horses and watched as farming moved to tractors and other machinery. He personally experienced the change of having to hand pick corn to seeing massive combines do the same job. He often bragged about graduating second in his high school class. Upon further questioning you would find out that his class only had seven kids, but he was in the top half. He went to Dana Collage in Blair Nebraska after high school. While there he caught pneumonia and was sent home. While recuperating at home he met Dorothy Ann Lauritsen who he married on June 8th 1950. On April 5th 1951 their first child was born, Roger Arnold Larsen, on August 30th 1955 their second child was born Amy Sue (Larsen) Brown.

Arnold is survived by his wife Dorothy Ann, his son Roger Arnold Larsen and wife Sally, and daughter Amy Sue (Larsen) Brown. He has three grandchildren Jessica Thressa (Larsen) Spinks her husband Jon Spinks, Sean Karl Brown, and Matthew Eric Brown (wife Katie). He also has two great grandchildren Ashlynn Julia (Larsen) Spinks and Logan Jon Spinks. He came from a family of hard chargers his oldest brother Dr. Lawrence Larsen MD deceased (surviving wife Betty), his sister Neoma (Larsen) Steen LPN deceased, Anna (Larsen) Berg RN, Rev Dr. Peter Larsen (wife Inetta) and Dr Philip Larsen PhD (wife Sandra), and brother-in-law Don Ray Lauritsen deceased a very successful farmer (wife Joan) and several nieces, nephews, and friends.

Arnold has worked several jobs throughout his life. He was a farmer, he worked in a gas station, drove a gravel dump truck, and at fifteen he drove a school bus. After he got married, Arnold and Dorothy Ann lived on two different farms but, before long he wanted to go back to school where he eventually received his PhD from Iowa State University in Ames Iowa. From there he took his family to Washington DC where he worked for the United States Department of Agriculture in Beltsville Maryland for six years. In 1970 he took his family to Fort Collins Colorado where he managed the Colorado State University Seed Testing Laboratory. There he created a training program to develop and train future seed analysis that is now used nationwide. He retired from CSU, July 30, 1993.

In addition to his different careers Arnold did volunteer work. He was always there to help a friend with a project. He worked on a sod farm to help a neighbor in Maryland. There were times he would help doing anything from moving furniture to putting on a new roof. He was a member of church councils in Maryland and Colorado. He sang in the choir and helped youth groups. His favorite hobby was photography where he took family pictures, church events, and seeds to be used in his seed analysis training program. He was a member of several professional societies and served on their board of directors. Ultimately he was known worldwide in the seed testing and certification community.

Arnold passed peacefully in his sleep at home while being attended to by his family at 7:10 AM May 6th 2020. Ultimately he didn’t just love and serve his immediate family consisting of wife and children, but grandchildren, great grandchildren, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, friends, neighbors, and anyone that needed help. The world is a better place for his having been here. I’m sure that our four legged companion Muffin will be waiting for him as he goes to his reward.

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