Memories of Joan Larsen

Joan took me under her wing pre tenure. She made sure I got to know key players across the university and she spread some good words about me. She was the central hub of hubbub in my early days at SLU. She would not only wave when I would see her, she’d divert her direction of travel to come and check in with me. She made SLU a nice place to work, friendly and supporting. I missed her when she retired and I miss her now. So long friend, you did well at making this place a community.
Jon Rosales, Environmental Studies

I served with Joan on several committees and admired greatly her astute contributions, her caring for students and colleagues, her insistence on rigorous thinking. Her wisdom and kindness were attributes in equal measure; she sent lovely notes frequently, notes of appreciation and encouragement, sometimes with wry observations. We especially loved seeing Joan and Ron at concerts. I will miss her.
Lisa Cania, Retiree, M'82, P'07

Joan was one of the first people I met when I visited SLU to apply for the job I now hold. Her friendliness and sense of humor made me feel at ease and added to my impression that it would be great to join the St. Lawrence University community. My condolences to Joan's family.
Donna Alvah, History

I am sorry to learn of Joan Larsen's passing. She was a tremendous help to me when I was at SLU, starting with my first semester in the Fall of 1981 when I took a class on library research that I believe she taught. My fond memory of her is someone who was endlessly patient with students and who possessed a great ability to teach us how to make our way around the library and its resources. I have worked with many librarians since those days, but I remember Joan Larsen as one of the very best I have ever encountered. My condolences to her family and friends.
Jason K. Duncan '85

As a student and mentee of Bob Thacker's, I had a relationship with Joan within days of arriving in Canton. Bob marched our First-Year Seminar to the Library in one of our earliest class sessions and introduced us to Joan. Thereafter, she served as my starting point on research for work in nearly all of my classes — and was a treasured advisor for many of my classmates, too. As the years passed, I enjoyed frequent conversations with Joan during her daily lunches at the old North Star Pub, where she presided over a gaggle of remarkable professors — Thacker, Horwitz and Greenwald among them. In my senior year, Joan humbled me and my closest friends, many of us editors of The Hill News, with this compliment: "You're a mitzvah." Joan, you were a mitzvah to all of us. Godspeed.
Ed Forbes '02