Rev. Lowell Larson departs this life

(Claremont Courier image)

What a full life lived by The Reverend Lowell Larson. The Reverend was a mighty important person in Morris MN in the 1950s. He was the pastor at First Lutheran throughout. This was the last decade of the West Central School of Agriculture, before UMM would sprout.
With the birth of UMM came The Reverend Clifford Grindland to serve First Lutheran. Meanwhile Pastor Larson took his considerable talents to Northridge, California, where he served a church with the same name of First Lutheran. His tenure there was long too, from 1960 to 1974. During that time he made a memorable return to Morris for a special event. He was the preacher for the Centennial program at the fairgrounds in 1971.
What a grand event the Morris Centennial was! Dick Bluth was in charge. Seems that everyone was more attuned to "community" then. Seems a contrast with today when we have allowed Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) to basically die. That's a head-scratcher. People seem different today compared to 1971. We're cocooning, defensive, absorbed in online, whatever. Our PPD left the summer months where it really had a grand run. A festive air on Sunday afternoon in particular - everyone loves a parade! Or, they did.
Our outstate Minnesota communities just seemed to have more, well, texture in the earlier time. We celebrated "people" more, even while recognizing our differences and struggles which could be considerable. There might have been a "Peyton Place" element. No era is perfect.
Nationally we had not extricated ourselves from the Indochina conflict. Scars of that would persist. We hadn't yet gotten to the scenes of people clutching helicopters at the fall of Saigon. That would come in 1975, a year after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. We are never too separated from adversity. Our current circumstances in 2020 most definitely underscore that. We show concern and yet seek the best happiness and joy we can.
Happiness and joy were certainly the currency of Morris in the summer of 1971. One hundred years for our community! We began as a little "tent town" that came with the railroad. The railroad made obsolete the primitive Wadsworth Trail. How endless the prairie of these parts was, when development began. The history shows there were no permanent Native American settlements. So let's say it was the burrowing owls that reigned "for time immemorial," as the late cartoonist Del Holdgrafer would note.
The first baby steps of civilization were when the U.S. Civil War was ending. The headlines of today make the Civil War seem not necessarily that remote. This very day, the re-naming of military bases is being bandied about with our president loudly denouncing the idea. He wants to see the Confederate names remain. What a strained issue in the first place. In other words, it would be a no-brainer to just erase the Confederate names. Just do it. Does everything have to become a conflict in the eyes of this president? Is that the whole point? Can't we do anything about it?
Hard to believe it was 49 years ago that Morris marked 100 years. Forty-nine years ago! So that means we're on the verge of the - practice this word - sesquicentennial. Maybe you won't have to practice the word if there is no celebration, just like there's no real Prairie Pioneer Days. The pandemic probably means there will literally be no PPD. It was scaled down to one day, as if our Chamber of Commerce is trying to tell the whole world that Morris is going to heck.
PPD at its peak (of several years) was a total plum for our community. Ditto for the Centennial of 1971, in spades in fact. Anyone who was there would readily confirm. Our high school band director John Woell was very active leading his musicians in various aspects. An ensemble played under the genuine "alfalfa arch" re-creation of this iconic Morris symbol. Hope the museum keeps the memory alive, both of the original arch and the re-creation. And for that matter, let's remind that our FFA chapter did a wonderful job putting up a small-scale arch for several years of PPD!
Woell also put together a smaller group which he called a "German band" - a hint as to his ancestry? - and this had a "wandering" quality to it. Reportedly it even sneaked into the Met Lounge and played a tune with members not of age. We just played music. A member looked at an old f--t on a stool wearing a straw hat and said "Is that Jerry Koosman?" Jerry's stardom in baseball inspired the name "Met Lounge."
Lowell Larson was the ideal choice for sharing inspiring spiritual words for the afternoon program. Years later, yours truly noticed his name in the announcement of an upcoming funeral at First Lutheran. Larson would preside, and in the fellowship hall afterward I talked him into posing for a photo with four of the attendees. I thought it important to share this visual reminder of church past in Morris. The photo was appreciated. It was an honor to take it for the Sun Tribune.
And now we have the news to report of The Reverend leaving us for his reward in heaven. I could say "sad news" but the gentleman had lived as full a life as was possible. He passed on May 10 from natural causes at age 95 in Claremont CA.
He was a great-grandfather. He was born in Lac qui Parle County in 1914. He graduated from high school in Appleton. Then it was on to Augsburg College and Luther Seminary in Minneapolis. He came to First Lutheran in Morris in 1948. Did the warm climate of California beckon? Who knows, but he had a fruitful stretch in Northridge after which he returned to the "theater of seasons" here in Minnesota, to Willmar. He was pastor at Vinje Lutheran Church until his retirement to Pilgrim Place in Claremont in 1989.
His wife Helen died too soon of a stroke in 1993 when she was 74. The two were married in 1946 and raised a family of five children.
Lowell was an avid duck hunter. While in Claremont he'd return to Minnesota for about four months each year to the family cottage near Willmar. He took several trips to Norway. He had a reputation of being open-minded and a good listener - oh my how we need those qualities in the U.S. now. He enjoyed Shakespeare as a hobby and passion. He was the father of Ted, Thom, Carol, Eric and Evan.
Memorial services will be held in Claremont and Willmar when the pandemic restrictions allow. Which raises the question: why not some special gesture here at First Lutheran, Lowell's first call and where he invested so much of his precious energy and dedication?
Lowell Larson, RIP. Thank you for enriching us in 1971.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

In "period" attire: director John Woell with his H.S. musicians under "alfalfa arch" for Morris Centennial in 1971. Photo by the late Florence Sarlette.