Ezra Larsen was born in Queensland, Australia on August 26, 1922 where his Danish parents, Christian Bernard and Abelone Larsen, were missionaries for the Danish State Lutheran Church. Ezra was raised in Blair, Nebraska, attended Dana College in Blair and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska. When the US entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, trained in radar, radio communications, and navigation, and was assigned to Air-Sea Rescue at bases in Brazil, Liberia, and Ascension Island in the Atlantic. Following the war, using the GI Bill, he earned his master’s degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin.
He married Esther Eriksen in 1950 and taught physics at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa and Tarkio College in Missouri before going into industry at Socony Vacuum in Paulsboro, New Jersey (working in spectroscopy) and Celanese Textiles in Pearisburg, Virginia to support their growing family. At Celenese, he helped develop the first synthetic insulating parka filler, branded Celecloud. He also helped develop a process and received a patent for laying down acetate yarn fibers to make some of the first cigarette filters at a time when it was widely believed filters would make cigarette smoking safer.
In 1957, Ezra took a job at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute for Standards and Technology) in Boulder, Colorado. His work featured measuring electromagnetic fields from many different kinds of antennae and a way to standardize measuring of microwave radiation intensity, for which he received a patent. Shortly after he developed the prototype, two men in suits entered his office and said they needed to take the instrument (even in the 1970’s, no one wore suits at NBS). Later, he learned that the instrument was used to measure microwave radiation fields inside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to make sure the levels were safe for workers there. A large picture with a hollow back had been presented to the embassy by the Soviet Union as a gift. It was suspected of being a listening device using microwaves somehow, even though there were no electronics in the frame. This same prototype and methodology were also used in factories to measure microwave leakage from the first home microwave ovens to ensure they were safe. During the 1970’s, while in his 50’s, he travelled around the country to measure electromagnetic fields from various antennae to determine if they were hazardous. On one trip he and a partner climbed a good way up one of the two transmission towers on top of the Hancock Building in Chicago. He took pictures, including of helicopters flying well below his vantage point.
In 1987, he married Sandy Elliott whom he met in the Lutheran Chorale. They lived in Westminster, Colorado and enjoyed taking part in Ezra’s grandkids’ activities.
When Ezra retired, he moved to Tucson to be closer to his two sisters and to play tennis year-round. Eventually, his knees began to object and he returned to Boulder. He moved into senior independent living apartments at Golden West Manor on the 10th floor with a view of the Flatirons. There he resumed an active fulfilling life singing again and attending many concerts. Everyone enjoyed his quick wit and humor. He maintained his independence until the last few months of his life. Medical staff were always amazed that he was so healthy and that he took no medications. Even the wait staff at restaurants were impressed when he went out and had a beer with his grandkids at age 96.
Ezra grew up interested in photography. During WW II, he always had a good camera and a dark room setup at each of his assignments. His father shipped him developing chemicals from home. He took some of the only daily-life wartime photos on Ascension Island. His pictures of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro were among his favorites. He eventually became the official base photographer during his assignment in Brazil. His children and grandchildren will be spending many hours looking through his thousands of family pictures that he developed into slides.
Ezra loved traveling, taking many cruises and travel tours. He visited Denmark many times to reconnect with his Danish relatives, taking his family members with him on some trips. He also traveled to St. Petersburg, Prague, Germany, Norway, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and through the Panama Canal on the Queen Elizabeth 2. Some trips were with Sandy Elliott, including performing with the Lutheran Chorale throughout Europe. He traveled a lot with his Danish cousin, Birthe Johansen, to Chile and back to Brazil, passing by the Falkland and Ascension Islands. Being able to return to Brazil after so many years was very important to him. He and Birthe also went to China, taking a boat up the Yangtze. Ezra loved being with his family here in Colorado and also with those in Santa Fe, Nebraska, Tucson, Boston, Atlanta, and Germany. One of his final trips was to take an “Honor Flight” with other WWII veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the WWII Memorial where they were met by dignitaries.
For the greater part of his life, Ezra was a die-hard amateur radio operator (a ham) with a home “ham-shack” and a personalized license plate with his call letters, KØOYZ. He enjoyed soldering together the various radios that he designed and constructed, so that he could talk to other operators around the world. When he did communicate with other hams, it was to chat about the various bells and whistles that their radio and antenna had and how those were designed and assembled. When he was finally able to purchase his dream transmitter/receiver fully built by a manufacturer, his interest in the hobby waned. In 1981, however, his son, Dale, took a job at the Scott-Amundsen station on the South Pole, where he was a base radio operator and helped scientists with experiments. Ezra reconfigured his ham radio antenna on the family roof in Boulder to point more north/south so that he was able to communicate frequently with Dale when ionospheric conditions were acceptable.
Ezra was an early adopter of electronic technology. His NBS work office had one of the first Wang desktop calculators, and he bought one of the first hand-held scientific calculators, which used Polish notation and required knowledge of how logarithms related to exponents because of its limited number of buttons. He was also excited to own one of the very first home computers, a Commodore PET. He was proud of his decision when he ordered it to upgrade the RAM from 4K to 8K (the hard drive was a cassette deck). Ironically, late in life he could not be convinced to set up email or go on social media.
Ezra played tennis most of his life, from a teenager playing against his siblings (his best rivalry was with his older sister, Ag) into his late 80’s. His opponents complained that his arms were too long, and he forced them to return the ball right back to him. He was a competitive player and enjoyed winning.
Ezra took up skiing in his 50’s and took advantage of many senior discounts, including free skiing at several smaller areas. He skied at various mountains with the Over the Hill Gang, the Ski Eskimos, and the Eldora Monday Seniors into his 70’s.
Music has always figured large with Ezra, who played the cornet in his early years. He shared his baritone voice with many groups, including singing with the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church Choir, the Flatiron Terrace Singers, and the Denver Lutheran Chorale with whom he toured several times in Europe. He also participated with the Chorale in the Columbine High School Memorial Service at Red Rocks Amphitheater in 1999. His children and grandchildren inherited his musical genes and have continued to play instruments throughout their own lives.
He will be sadly missed by his children, Carl Larsen of Marietta, Georgia, Dale Larsen (Sandy), of Erie, Colorado, and Karen Larsen of Broomfield, Colorado, brother Philip Larsen (Florence) of Blair, Nebraska, and sister Agnes Paulsen of Tucson. Ezra leaves behind six grandchildren, Kevin (Amy), Keith, Kassandra, Erik, Rachel, Katrina Feldman (Patrick), and four great-grandchildren, Kelly and Sean Feldman, Connor and Nicholas Ezra Larsen. He is predeceased by sister Lydia Beckman and husband Peter, of Bainbridge Island, Washington, brother-in-law, Lyle Paulsen of Tucson, and daughter-in-law, Susan Esposito Larsen, of Marietta, Georgia and Uxbridge, Massachusetts.
A memorial service in Ezra’s honor will be held on Sunday, July 7 at 2:00 pm at Trinity Lutheran Church in Boulder at 2200 Broadway Street (80302) with a reception following the service. Interment with military honors will be on Monday, July 8 at 11:45 am at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver at 3698 S. Sheridan Blvd, staging area ‘A’ (80235).
Memorial donations may be made in his name to:
Anti-Defamation League
605 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10158
https://support.adl.org/give/174715/#!/donation/checkout
Or to:
Oaks Indian Mission
155 Military Road
Oaks, OK 74359
https://donorbox.org/1801-society-membership-financial-donations
Shortly after WW II, Ezra developed a brain embolism, and fell into a coma for many months. He told the story of another patient in the same open ward in the VA hospital who kept him alive the entire time by feeding and caring for him. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that he told his son, Dale, that the man was Jewish. Ezra regretted that he was never able to find the man to thank him, but in remembrance he donated to several Jewish charities repeatedly over his lifetime.
Ezra’s mother, Abelone Nielsen, ran the boarding house at the Oaks Indian Mission in northeast Oklahoma during and after World War I. The mission served mainly Cherokee children whose ancestors survived the Trail of Tears from Georgia and Tennessee. Today it still serves Cherokee children, along with children from other Native American tribes who need special help and attention.
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