Retired Covenant minister Robert A. Larson died June 28, 2026, in Batavia, Illinois. He was 102.
Robert Algot Larson was born May 29, 1924 on the South Side of Chicago, to Swedish immigrants Gustaf Algot Larson and Frieda (Nyberg) Larson. He graduated from Hirsch High School in 1942 and entered the United States Navy, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters aboard the battleship USS Texas. He was present at three of the defining engagements of World War II—the D-Day landings at Normandy, and the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Those years forged in Bob an abiding Christian faith that would sustain and guide him the rest of his life. A Bible study he helped organize aboard ship produced friendships that lasted a lifetime.
After the war, Bob sensed a call to ministry in the Evangelical Covenant Church. He graduated from North Park Junior College, Wheaton College and North Park Theological Seminary before becoming ordained in 1955. On October 28, 1961, he married Edith Young, and together they spent fifty years of marriage raising three children. He served Covenant congregations in Manistee, Ishpeming, and Whitehall, Michigan; Ridgway, Pennsylvania; Kewanee, Illinois; and Cranston, Rhode Island.
Among his pastoral duties, Bob was most passionate about preaching and visiting the homebound and hospitalized, bringing to those encounters a soft-spoken empathy and unhurried gift of listening that brought comfort to people who were lonely, sick, and dying. He also loved music, serving as choir director and playing his trumpet in church.
Bob and Edie retired first to Whitehall, Michigan, and then to Hendersonville, North Carolina, before entering the Holmstad in Batavia, Illinois, a Covenant Living community, where Bob spent his final years forming cherished friendships with fellow residents. He was a devoted husband and loving father whose honesty, integrity, humility, and grit were, by all accounts, unassailable.
Bob was preceded in death by his wife, Edie, and his sister, Lillian. He is survived by his children, Julie Saeuberlich (Ken) of Grovertown, Indiana; Bob Larson (Michele) of Cary, North Carolina; and Linnea Larson Jorgensen (Tom) of Long Beach, California; his grandchildren, Kristen Larson (Farhan Khan), Kevin Larson (Addison), Antonio Jorgensen (Aminah), and Grace and Christine Jorgensen; and his great-grandchildren, Yousef Khan and Hosanna Larson.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Holmstad Benevolence Fund by emailing ACSlaiher@covliving.org.
Peace be to his memory.
