Front Range Seed Analysts
1993 Seed Forum Volume 7 Number 3
Colorado Seed Laboratory Director Dr. Arnold Larsen Retires
After 36 years in seed analysis, Dr. Arnold Larsen, Director of
the Colorado Seed Laboratory and CSU professor, will retire on July
30. The legacy he leaves to the seed testing profession seems to
be all around us. Every laboratory in the country has benefited because
of his hard work, publications, teaching efforts and many inventions.
Born and raised in Iowa, Dr. Larsen was always interested in
agriculture. Between undergraduate and graduate training, he worked
for Roberts Produce selling feed and seed for three years and he worked
a farm for five years. He married Dorothy Ann Lauritsen in 1950 and
they have two children and three grandchildren. He received his M.S.
and Ph.D. with a major in economic botany with minors in taxonomy and crop
production from Iowa State University. Before coming to Colorado,
he was a supervisor in the Iowa State Seed Laboratory and a Research Botanist
for the U.S.D.A. in Beltsville, Maryland.
His research addressed diverse problems. He was a pioneer
in the use of protein electrophoresis for varietal purity of seeds, performing
assays in the 1960's, long before widespread commercial application of
the techniques. The years of careful experiments for
blowing points yielded seed testing protocols and equipment that eliminated
countless hours of tedious work for analysts. Another time-saver, the multiple-unit
rule, with its table and drawings, has been adopted internationally for
testing seeds with multiple units. Dr. Larsen authored the
"Study Guide to the Seeds of Colorado", an excellent identification aid
that has helped over a decade of beginning analysts.
Equipment improvements were a perennial interest. Dr. Larsen's
designs for purity stations were copied in several other laboratories.
He invented the two-way thermogradient plate, a device widely used today,
for simultaneous seed testing at a range of temperatures. His
seed blower and divider design research showed creativity.
Dr. Larsen tackled thankless jobs like the revision
of AOSA Handbook 25: Uniform Classification of Weed and Crop Species.
This effort took several years and involved changing the entire method
of classification as well as expanding a manual that had covered a few
hundred species to one that covered over 2000 kinds. The old handbook
was a mere 36 pages. The new one is several hundred pages.
To cap this achievement, the Handbook was approved for use at this year's
annual AOSA business meeting.
Less tangible but just as important was the time spent training
analysts and working with graduate students. He was often praised
for being a director who delved into the everyday work of the lab and keenly
appreciated the skills and problems of the analysts. Often as not,
when visitors stopped by, Dr. Larsen was at the purity board or checking
TZ tests or helping a new worker at the divider. He often gave
impromptu anatomy lessons, carefully dissecting the complicated rangegrasses
for novice analysts. His efforts were instrumental in establishing
the Larimer County Voc-Tech Seed Analysis program which trained analysts
for nearly a decade. When the program was discontinued, he pushed
for introducing new seed related courses at CSU.
His teaching and research skills were valued beyond the CSU campus. He was invited to work with analysts at seed schools in several other states. He received the merit award from AOSA in 1982, honorary membership in SCST in 1989, and Colorado Seedsman of the year in 1986. He worked on many committees of the AOSA and was elected President in 1980. The International Seed Testing Association also tapped his expertise with committee involvement through the years. He served as president and advisor of the Front Range Seed Analysts. Most recently, he was part of the effort to revise the Colorado Seed Act and was in attendance when Governor Romer signed the new act into law, June 2, 1993.
So the work of Dr. Larsen is all around us, seen and unseen, and there are many reasons to celebrate his career. The Colorado Seed Laboratory will feel the vacuum the most but he assures the Front Range Seed Analysts that he will still be in town.
compiled by Annette Logan