Fresno City College will be holding a celebration for retired instructor Don Larson’s 80th birthday on Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. in the Old Administration Building. The State Center Community College Foundation Board of Directors will be honoring Larson for his efforts and accomplishments as an educator, philanthropist and a long-time SCCC foundation board member.
The celebration will also be a fundraiser for an endowed scholarship. Larson determines the criteria for who will receive the scholarship. The funds will be generated through the attendance fee
Larson, born 1933 in San Francisco, graduated from College of the Sequoias in 1952 and University of California, Berkeley in 1954. Immediately after graduating in 1954, he taught at both Caruthers High School and Kerman High School.
Larson received his master’s degree from Fresno State College in 1960. He also taught for six years in the Fresno Unified School District before finally coming to FCC where he taught for 35 years.
A passion that Larson held for years has been basketball. He kept score for basketball games since 1948 at various schools including Kerman High School, Mclane High School and Fresno City College until 2009. He also served as co-chair of the Capital Campaign for the OAB in FCC campus as well as on the SCCC foundation since retiring in 1999.
As instructor, he was committed to the success of his students. He said his only disappointment was when he felt that he failed a student.
“I always felt when a student didn’t succeed, some way, ‘what did I miss? Why haven’t I been able to help that student?’”
Since retirement, Larson spends his free time going to concerts, plays, symphonies and operas. He also manages his World’s Fair collection located in the Special Collections Department of the Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno. The collection is second only to that in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
While Larson is confident in his decision for retirement, he misses his Western civilization class in particular which included a field trip to San Francisco. He enjoyed the reaction of students who hadn’t seen San Francisco before the trip.
Larson is still an active member of SCCC foundation and intends to be around campus on occasion to watch sporting events and check on the departments.
“There’s a lot of really good things that go on on this campus,” said Larson.
The greatest pleasure Larson had was working with passionate people at FCC.
“For someone who truly wants to be a school teacher and work with kids, this is about as good as it gets,” said Larson. “Because the [students and faculty] are here because they want to be here.”
