As an educator for Grand Haven Area Public Schools, Ken Larson touched countless lives. His teaching career in Grand Haven spanned from 1967 to his retirement in 2000, and the impact he left will enhance generations to come.
Larson taught seventh and eighth-grade General Science, ninth-grade Conservation/Environmental Education, eighth-grade Outdoor Education, New Directions for At Risk Children and Remedial Science for those with special needs. His list of accomplishments includes being an initial member of the Middle School teaching team that brought Middle School education concepts to Grand Haven. He established age-appropriate Junior High enrichment classes to replace study halls in the 1970s, and established the GHAPS Science Olympiad program at the Junior High. He designed and developed an Adventure Center that incorporated team-building activities and indoor challenges that included the first rock climbing wall in a West Michigan School, and established a real time remote TV-8 weather collection station at the Junior High.
Among his lasting legacies is his establishment of the Outdoor Recreation Program, an enrichment program that evolved into the Outdoor Education Program, and a Junior High Nature Center and Arboretum. The recipient of many awards and honors, Ken received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Michigan State University. He and his wife live in Grand Haven.
