I’ve known Mike Larson for nearly 30 years, but only since reading a couple of books he wrote recently did I learn how little you often know about a colleague.

Mike, who grew up on a farm near St. James and now lives near St. Cloud, was the former editor of The Free Press. He was managing editor, under then editor Ken Berg, in 1982, when he hired me after I graduated from Minnesota State University.

Over the years we watched our kids grow, played basketball (Mike had a stunning fade-away jump shot), and took part in monthly poker games.

He taught me more about journalism than anyone else. His command of grammar and usage is legendary. His news judgment always keen, while being compassionate and fair.

I knew he’d served in Vietnam. He’d mention it only occasionally, saying he was a reporter in the public information office. His book, “Heroes, A Year in Vietnam with the First Air Cavalry Division” — 1967 to 1968 — tells of a unit that was often in the heat of battle, flying helicopters into hot spots. Mike covered it all with a camera, notebook and rifle.

For someone a bit too young to remember details of Vietnam, I found the book to be a compelling history of an important segment of the war.

And, while Mike was in the midst of plenty of suffering and hardship, his views on his experiences altered a misperception I long held: that Vietnam had to have been a wholly negative experience for those who served.

In a hand-written note inside the book he sent me, Mike said that while many experiences were horrifying, “For me, Vietnam proved a very positive, life-changing experience.”

In the book he tells of jungle camps in which sleeping soldiers were gnawed on by rats, and fierce battles, including the Tet Offensive, where more than 100 of his First AirCav comrades died and hundreds more were injured.

After Vietnam, Mike worked for a number of newspapers including the St. Paul Dispatch, Red Wing Republican Eagle, Fairmont Sentinel and New Ulm Journal.

In his book, “Portraits from the Prairies,” Mike revisits many of the columns he wrote for The Free Press.

“I have been given an incredible opportunity over the years, being able to paint word portraits of some marvelous people,” he writes in the foreword.

The book is a treasure trove of area history, from the Schell’s Brewery and Godahl Store to a St. James man who met Buffalo Bill and the return of Bruce Laingen to Odin after he was released by the Iranians at the end of the hostage crisis.

And the book provides more insight into Mike’s life, including his close friendship with the Washington Post’s Don Graham, son of longtime Post publisher Katharine Graham.

Perhaps it’s a trait of a journalist to reveal themselves more through their writing than in person. In any case, it was satisfying to better know a longtime friend and colleague.

His books can be ordered at www.iUniverse.com, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.



Tim Krohn is a Free Press staff writer. He can be contacted at 344-6383 or

email him Tim by clicking here