On Sunday May 31, 1964 I graduated from Augustana College (now University) with a BA in history. Six days later on Saturday, June 6, 1964 I married my sweetheart, know known as the Curmudgeonette. On Wednesday June 10, she began a practicum in counseling commuting from Sioux Falls to SDU in Vermillion, SD. It was a course she needed to be licensed as a school counselor in Minnesota and qualify for a job offered by St. Louis Park Senior High School. Rollie Larson was the administrator who offered her the job.
We were ecstatic! Her salary at Agustana as director of Student Activities, Head Resident of Bergsager Hall, and instructor of psychology was $4,800. and she signed at St. Louis Park High for $8,650. Entering seminary, as I was, it was apparent that I'd be supported in the style to which I'd become accustomed. Imagine our delight a few weeks late when a letter informed us that salary negotiations recently concluded added $5,000. to her salary for a total of $9,150. Those were the halcyon days in St. Louis Park Schools plus counselors were paid on administrators not teachers scale.
We settled in an apartment in St. Louis Park and I commuted to seminary it St. Paul. There were some very close friends from seminary but much of our socializing was with the school counselors and their spouses. The curmudgeonette had excellent collegial relationships with the other counselors and Rollie their supervisor. We became very close to them and grieved the separation when we moved to North Dakota to answer my first call.
The Curmudgeonette was in her late 20's and early 30's those years and one of the youngest of the counselors. So, when the survivors gathered from Rollie's funeral,..Jerry, Keith, Dick, Jim, Paul...all of whom are at least 80, frailty was evident. With absences from ages in the 60s to ages in the 80s...the changes caused by aging are striking.
A kind of melancholy settled over me as I was aware of the passage of time, separation and distance from people who were very important to us when we young and leaning into life. These are people with whom we are always happy to reconnect yet seldom do.
Rollie was a person of impeccable integrity, deep compassion, rich faith and lively sense of humor which always kept a twinkle in his eye. Some of his favorite quotes were included in the funeral folder. Some examples......
>Be grateful for life's every moment and for all things great and small.
>Choose to be happy; bring joy and laughter to others.
>Remain optimistic and positive through life's trials. (Which he did even as he buried a son and grandson.)
> Be true to self and others.
>Never lose the child in me.
>Maintain a forgiving attitude.
Rest in peace Rollie, good and faithful servant.
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