G. Edward Larson

Who was G. Edward Larson?

Godfrey Edward Larson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He joined the Army at the start of World War II and was assigned to the Transportation Corps. He attended Officer’s Candidate School in Louisiana during the summer of 1943 and became a lieutenant. In 1944 and 1945 he served as a port officer at Cherbourg, France.

After the war Larson returned to Minnesota where he joined the staff of former governor Harold Stassen. Larson served as Harold Stassen’s aide from 1947 to 1958. He accompanied Stassen to Washington, D.C. in 1953 when Stassen became head of the Foreign Operations Administration, and also served on Stassen’s staff at the White House when Stassen was Special Assistant to the President for Disarmament. When Stassen left government service in 1958 Larson transferred to the Department of the Interior. He served as special assistant to Under Secretary Elmer Bennett, and helped prepare Bennett’s speeches. At the end of the Eisenhower administration Larson transferred to the Office of Coal Research in the Interior Department where he worked until 1975.