Allan B. Larson, age 81, of Mound, passed away peacefully on November 15, 2018, surround by family and loved ones. Preceded in death by parents, Lawrence and Florence; siblings, Delane, Dean, Arlene, and Gary; his daughter, Cheryl; and 2 step-sons, Rick and Cory Beyer. He is survived by his wife, Marge; siblings, LaVerne, Wally, Ardele (Lamo), Arlyce (Mahlberg), Danny, and Leon. His children; Wayne, Natalie, Tom and stepsons Rob and Todd Beyer. 14 grandchildren; Drake, Trenton, Paige, Ryann, Amanda, Megan, Blaze, Ethan, Lindsay, Christie, Chrissie, Jesse, Deborah, and Cindy. And lastly 4 great-grandchildren; Sophia, Jordan, Sydney, and Liam.
Allan was born October 9th, 1937 at his childhood home in Watson, Minnesota. He was the 3rd of 11 children in his family. Allan went to school in Montevideo, MN and joined the Airforce at age 17 with his older brother and best friend, Wally. He was an electronic technician working on airplanes, a few of his duty stations included Guam, Japan, Alaska and Texas. He took some R&R once to Hawaii and posed for a picture at the Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki Beach and was the only person on the beach. After a successful four years in the service he completed tech school in Denver and later moved back to Minnesota where in 1970 founded TL Systems. Allan and TL were awarded several patents for pharmaceutical packaging equipment, with the most noteworthy be a liquid-filler pump used in clean rooms to fill vials at very high speed.
In August of 1977 Allan married his high school sweetheart, Marge Claggett and they joined their two families of 7 kids living in Eden Prairie (EP). The years in EP were wonderful, but as empty-nesters they decided to move out to Lake Minnetonka. The move day, just like Allan’s life, was very memorable - they moved on Oct 31st, 1991 the day of the blizzard and over 30” of snow in two days! Of course, this didn’t stop Allan as he made trips back and forth during the blizzard – the Larson way – ha!. They lived in that incredible house for over 20 years that included developing an addition that featured a pool room like no others.
In 1995 he sold the company to Bosch and started retirement with Marge and their dogs. Dogs were always a big part of their lives and family starting with Mimi and now with Watson. They bought a new boat, an incredible 5th- wheel, and took an amazing vacation to Norway with a few of his siblings and folks. After a couple years of RV parks they decided to become permanent snowbirds in Palm Desert, California owning two different homes on Shadow Mountain Golf Course. They truly enjoyed hosting visitors, and there were plenty who wanted to get out of the cold and receive the outstanding hospitality from Allan and Marge. Also might include a trip or two to the Street Fair!
Allan loved playing music with friends and family. His life-long love of music started at 13 when he first started playing for others and later in life was part of the “Norseman” band that was led by his brother-in-law, Helge Lamo. The band played regularly at The Sons of Norway club and other dance halls. They entered the Aquatennial band competition and they won! A great memory for Marge was when Allan sang a solo to her while they were first dating – “Welcome to my World” by Jim Reeves. What a world it was and how they lived life for 41 years together. How about his Fender Guitar that he bought at a music shop on Lake Street and later sold it for $21,000, he sure knew how to make a return on his investment 😊
Allan loved spending time outdoors including boating on Minnetonka, annual fishing trips with his brothers and good friends, deer hunting up at Northome, and goose and pheasant hunting back home in Watson. We had a good smile when we moved Allan from ICU to his new room on 3rd floor 3040, guess what his rifle was – 3040 Craig. We could see Allan smiling when Todd said the hunting God’s are pulling for Allan too.
A memorial service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 2451 Fairview Ln, Mound, MN 55364, on Friday, November 30 at 11:00 AM with a visitation 1-hour prior. Memorials are preferred to St. John’s Lutheran Memorial Garden.