Theodore (Ted) William Larson

life story

Getting Together

Ted's birthday in 2022, coming together for a good visit and meal.

Ted's Life

Theodore (Ted) William Larson, age 78, passed away on July 20th, 2024 in Bonita Springs, Florida.

He was born on October 13th, 1945 in Chippewa Falls, WI to Katherine Ruth (Gunderson) Larson and Theodore Andrew Larson. He grew up in Chippewa Falls and shared happy memories of playing in Duncan Creek with his two brothers, Tom and Paul. The three of them got up to plenty of shenanigans over the years with the neighborhood kids, such as building a snowman in the middle of the road at the top of a hill, so cars would drive up the hill and blast apart the snowman while the kids watched. Some drivers were not too pleased!

Ted was a 1964 graduate of Chippewa Falls Senior High, then attended the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire for 2 years. He enlisted in the army in 1966 and served in Vietnam from October 1967 to May 1969 as a Traffic Analyst after training in Fort Devens, MA. He stayed in the army until Sept of 1970, working at the NSA (National Security Agency) in Fort Meade, MD. He was discharged from the army with lots of medals and commendations, which he never talked about. Those honors included the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Sharpshooter Badge, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Ted enrolled at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 1971, but finished at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, graduating May of 1972 with a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics and a minor in Criminology. He was offered a job in Washington D.C. working for the NSA, but by then, he’d met Michele (Leone Miller), and he decided to stay in MN where he was hired by the Plymouth, MN police department in 1973. 

Ted married Michele September 22nd, 1972 and raised three children together, Ramona, William, and Jamie. They enjoyed so many wonderful game nights in front of the wood-burning fireplace with a big bowl of popcorn. Hand and Foot (card game) was a favorite, and we continue to play today. Ted bought a Mazda RX-7 and would take the kids tearing through the gravel pits in Maple Grove at top speed! Jamie remembers sitting on the hump in the back, and Michele would be telling Ted to slow down! They eventually grew apart and divorced in 1996.

Ted often told the story of meeting “this red-haired librarian” at jury duty in Minneapolis in 1997, just a few years before his retirement. Pat and Ted soon gravitated to Bonita Springs, Florida where Ted started each day with a long hard bike ride down the coast in Naples. He loved the beach, the easy life style visiting with long-time friends, making new friends, and having family come visit. There were many trips to Wiggins State Park, Lovers Key Beach, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, Naples Zoo, Hammond Stadium for MN Twins Baseball Spring Training games, mini golf, Tijuana Flats, The Fish House, and of course, Royal Scoop for giant ice cream cones and Ted’s favorite, the chocolate malt.

When Ted started with the Plymouth Police Department, it was just a small trailer with a very small department. He worked diligently and grew in his talent as the department grew. He had a successful career, promoting from patrolman to sergeant to detective, but he didn’t enjoy his desk job and quickly went back to sergeant. He loved working nights because that’s where the action was. He loved being on the road and never wrote a citation that wasn’t deserved. One story Jamie remembers well is riding along with Ted, following a man for about 4 turns not using his blinker. On the 4th turn with no blinker, Ted pulled the man over who quickly claimed that he always used his blinker and just forgot the one time! Ted said, “Well, the problem with that is, I’ve been behind you long enough to watch you not use it 4 times.” Silence. Ramona likes the stories he told about blocking people into the handicap parking spot so they couldn’t leave, and citing them for no handicap permit. The person would say, “I was only here for 2-minutes!” and he’d reply, “When it’s a 2-minute parking spot, you can park here.”

He knew what was fair and was beloved by his coworkers. For example, the chief of police at the time didn’t let the patrolmen wear warm hats in the winter but rather they were forced to wear ball caps. Ted knew this was unreasonable and wanted his patrolmen to be warm, so he told them they could wear stocking caps while he was on duty, and the chief could talk to him if he had a problem with it. He always stood up for those he worked with. He really loved helping people and liked to take his kids along on ride-alongs to give them real-world experiences. He worked for the Plymouth Police Department 27 years until 2000 when he retired happily at age 55 and remained in contact with many of his coworkers until his passing.

After retirement, Ted devoted more time to his passions. Traveling to Isla Mujeres, Mexico with Pat was a favorite. He was always an active bicycler and went on rides as long as 50 miles in one afternoon. Ted became a talented photographer, taking so many wonderful photos over the years. He passed this passion on to his daughters; Jamie still uses his set of Canon lenses. His favorite lens was a white telephoto that he would take to the beaches to capture egrets and sandhill cranes. He’d get some dirty looks from beach goers who thought he was zooming in on them! Ted always loved to read, especially science fiction, and was an avid library patron until just a year before his passing. His favorite book of all time was Dune by Frank Herbert. He watched part one of the new movie at least 10 times, looking forward to part two.

Ted absolutely loved spending time with his family and frequently wanted to get everyone together. He would often invite family over for a home cooked meal and a game of cards. He went to hundreds of Twins baseball games with Will. The two of them enjoyed planned as well as spontaneous trips to the Metrodome and Target field. Jamie worked on countless jigsaw puzzles with him over the years. Ramona knew she could go to him with anything she needed or wanted to talk about and he always stuck up for her through her battle with depression. He was the rock of the family, the central support system, knew just what to say and always gave good advice.

When Ted’s first grandchild, Victoria, came along, he and Pat would watch her for weeks at a time at his house to spend cherished moments with her, including many trips to the community garden to plant and harvest crops. As the first grandchild to go to college, Ted wanted to pay Victoria’s tuition, and this is one of the proudest acts of love he ever did. As more grandkids came along - Isabella, Emmett, Sawyer, and Zachary - he made as much time as he could for seeing those babies! Pat’s daughter Christina (Linhoff) Pham has two girls, Cat Tien and Luu Li, who adored Grandpa Ted and spent a lot of time with him. Pat’s son Joseph Linhoff has a daughter as well, Elise, who got lots of snuggles from Grandpa Ted. He always loved to bring out the tickle bugs every chance he could, whether it was while snuggled on the couch trying to read a bedtime story, or chasing the kids all over the house, calling out “Moo HaaHaaHaa.” When the kids were real young, he would stuff something under his shirt, like his ball cap, and then walk into the room with the bulge in his shirt and say “Have you guys seen my ball cap? I can’t find it anywhere!” The kids would go wild, yelling, “It’s right there! It’s under your shirt!” and they’d try to pull it out. He liked passing around the bowl of dove dark chocolates any time he could, and the grandkids came to expect a dove at every visit. He was a very proud grandpa!

We like to think that Ted had 9 lives, although he wasn’t a fan of cats! First, he served in Vietnam for 1.5 years and made it out unscathed. Then, he was hit by a train on one of his nightly police calls, driving red lights and siren to an emergency, and broke his neck in two places. He was told if one of the breaks were one vertebrate higher or lower, he would have died instantly. Later, he had several nasty bike crashes where he cracked his helmet, broke his sternum, collar bone, arm, ribs, and shoulder. He also survived a big heart-attack and was on blood thinners, but then later had a big stroke and chose to stop taking the blood thinners. He decided he would have another heart-attack any day before he had another stroke. Well, he survived an unknown number of mini-strokes after that! It was Dementia that got him in the end, but he was strong the entire way downhill.

As a loving partner, father, and grandfather, Ted will always remain in the hearts of his partner Pat, mother of his children Michele, his children Ramona Larson, William Larson, and Jamie (Jason) Smith; Pat’s children Joseph (Meredith) Linhoff, Michelle (Matt) Heyn, Christina (Luu) Pham; grandchildren Victoria and Zachary Larson, Isabella Keller-Larson, Emmett and Sawyer Smith; Cat Tien and Luu Li Pham, and Elise Linhoff; his brother Tom (Laura) Larson; sister-in-law Leisa; aunt Bobbie Peterson, as well nieces, nephews, cousins, other extended family, and friends.

Ted is preceded in death by his parents and brother Paul Larson.

A memorial service is planned for September 7th at 11am in Chippewa Falls at Forest Hill Cemetery. That short service will be followed by a scattering of ashes at a picnic lunch at Irvine Park at Main Pavilion. Please contact Ted’s children for details.

If you would like to make a donation in his memory, please consider Vitas Hospice in Naples FL, or Children’s Hospital in St Paul, MN. He would also love if a tree were planted in his name.

memorial service

Celebration of Life

September 7, 2024

A short military honors service at Forest Hill Cemetery in Chippewa Falls, WI will be followed by a Celebration of Life picnic at Main Pavilion at Irvine Park at 12pm. Come to one event or both!