Howard Larson, 2010

Howard Larson, retired Library staff member turned Library volunteer, died this fall, at the age of 81. 

Charles Howard Larson grew up in rural northeastern Indiana, attended the University of Indiana and served in the Army during the Korean War. After being discharged from the Army, Howard and his wife Nancy moved to Washington D.C., and then to Arlington, where they raised daughters Martha and Barbara. Howard worked several jobs before settling in at the District of Columbia Central Personnel Office, from which he retired.

It was then that he started his second career, as a member of the staff at the Aurora Hills Branch Library. After almost 20 years with the Library, Howard retired – but instead of leaving the Library behind, he became a volunteer.

Four days a week, Howard came in at 9:30 a.m. to process the router – the list of holds, or items that need to be pulled from the shelves and sent to another library for customer pick up. During tax season, Howard was also in charge of ordering and coordinating all of the paper tax forms. His careful attention to everything he did, combined with long personal relationships with many Aurora Hills patrons, made Howard a well loved and valuable part of the Library’s team.

Howard was also a member of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., where his dedication to good food and drink led to their upstairs kitchen being named after him, and where it was a point of pride for him to shovel their sidewalks after the unprecedented snowstorms of 2009 and 2010.

The staff at Aurora Hills remember Howard similarly for his love of good coffee, and miss sharing it with him four mornings a week.