Al Larson worked hard as a kid growing up in Long Beach, with two paper routes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The paper routes also gave him a chance to do something else he loved besides tossing the papers to driveways: reading the newspaper, especially the sports section, which eventually led to a long career with the Press-Telegram.
Larson, a legendary P-T sports journalist who spent 42 years with the publication, had a stroke in November and died on June 18 at an assisted-care facility in Cerritos, said his wife, Grace Carroll Larson. He was 94.
“He will be greatly missed by all of his family and friends,” his wife said.
Jim McCormack, former longtime sports editor at the Press-Telegram, remembered Larson for his love of sports.
“Al retired more than 40 years ago, but he remained passionate for his community and the people in it,” McCormack said. “It wasn’t unusual to receive a note from Al that included a clipping of something he wanted to be sure his former co-workers had seen.”
As a writer, Larson covered Long Beach State athletics and then the Los Angeles Rams. Later in his career, he worked on the sports desk, responsible for the Scoreboard page, a popular section that included all of the day’s critical box scores, standings and results. Larson was also a longtime member of the Century Club, Long Beach’s preeminent sports organization, and a volleyball enthusiast, putting together summer teams that dominated senior masters volleyball for decades, McCormack said. Larson’s wife said she went with her husband and his team one year to Copenhagen, Denmark, for a volleyball tournament.
Larson was one in a long line of popular P-T staffers, during a time, McCormack said, when the Press-Telegram had a great relationship with readers in the last half of the 20th Century.
“That was particularly true in sports, and I think it was because so many of the sports staffers grew up in the Long Beach area and had been regular Independent, Press-Telegram readers before they became journalists,” he said. “Those journalists included Al Larson, Doug Ives, John Dixon, Jack Teele, George Lederer, Ken Piverneta, Frank Burlison, Lane Smith, Ross Newhan, Dave Lewis, Rich Roberts and John Lowe, to list just a few.”
Greg Gibson, who worked at the Press-Telegram before becoming sports editor at the Orange County Register, remembered Larson as someone who loved his life.
“He was a newspaper pro who did great work and was proud of the Press-Telegram,” the now-retired Gibson said. “He was friendly and liked by all.”
Alvin Malen Larson was born on Jan. 29, 1930, at Seaside Hospital (now MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center) to John and Hellen Larson. He attended Rogers Junior High and Wilson High, graduating in 1947.
During World War II, while attending Wilson High, he spent his afternoons on the roof of the historic 16-story Villa Riviera downtown on Ocean Boulevard to keep an eye out over the Pacific Ocean, his wife said.
“His job was to radio in if he saw any Japanese bombers or submarines approaching the Long Beach shoreline,” she said. “Fortunately, he never did.”
Larson graduated from Long Beach City College in 1950, spent four years in the U.S. Air Force and then graduated from UCLA in 1957.
After his Air Force service, he returned to Long Beach and his job at the Press-Telegram. where his father worked as a clerk for 42 years and his sister, Bernie, worked as a switchboard operator for 45 years.
“Al especially enjoyed his years covering the Rams and traveling all over the country with them” his wife said. “He remained friends with many of the players for years. He loved keeping in touch with his Air Force friends, school friends and working colleagues with visits, letters and phone calls for decades.”
Larson also had a sense of humor and was a stickler for accuracy.
Tom Hennessy, the Press-Telegram’s late columnist and a great Notre Dame football fan, lamented in a column in 2007 about how the Irish had lost four games in a row. “
Sports legend Al Larson called me and blamed Notre Dame’s problems on me,” Hennessy wrote. “He noted that I have been spelling (Notre Dame) Coach Charlie Weis’ name as Weiss.”
In 1986, at a Wilson High reunion, Larson renewed acquaintances with a friend, Grace Wallinder Carroll, and they married.
“We had 36 wonderful years together,” she said. “We both enjoyed traveling the world together and being with family.”
She said he became a stepfather to Grace’s three children: Pam, Chris and Vince, and grandfather to 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
“They all loved Al beyond words,” she said.
A private celebration of life will be held later this month, she said.
