Karl Gottfried Larson papers

Karl Gottfri[e]d Larson was born in Husvalla, Sweden on November 5 1883. He immigrated to the United States as a young boy, and attended the Augustana Academy in Rock Island, Illinois. Larson graduated from the Academy in 1911, and then earned his BA from Augustana College in 1915. He also earned his MA from the University of Wisconsin in 1929, and completed further graduate work at the University of Chicago. As a young man, he trained as a mechanic, and made tools at the Rock Island Arsenal during World War I. He taught at the Augustana Academy from 1915 to 1923, and was its principal in 1930. Larson joined the Augustana Physics Department in 1931, and became its first chairman. He taught at Augustana until his retirement in 1959. He was also active in the Illinois Academy of Science and the Iowa Colloquium for Physics Teachers. On January 28, 1956, he married Olga A. Nelson. Larson died in Joliet, Illinois on November 8, 1977. His collection contains a scrapbook of photographs, including photographs of the class of 1916, Theodore Roosevelt, and friends and family.