{"id":3149,"date":"2015-06-11T15:55:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T22:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/?p=3149"},"modified":"2015-06-11T15:55:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T22:55:42","slug":"larson-rockin-in-the-free-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/2015\/06\/11\/larson-rockin-in-the-free-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Larson: Rockin’ in the free world"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Benny<\/a>
Benny Beaver was among retiring professor Erik Larson’s well-wishers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fittingly, as management professor, Neil Young devotee and renowned good guy Erik Larson took the podium at his retirement celebration May 15, Young\u2019s tour de force \u201cHeart of Gold\u201d poured forth from the sound system in the Robert Family Events Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to live; I want to give,\u201d Young sang. \u201cI\u2019ve been a miner for a heart of gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the College of Business collected back in 1980 when it lured a young scholar west from SUNY-Buffalo, the pairing working so well that Larson became something of a rarity: a professor whose entire career took place at one university.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to have worked at Oregon State and in this college,\u201d Larson said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m really glad to have gotten to spend my last year here, in the house that Ilene built.\u201d<\/p>\n

A colleague of Dean Ilene Kleinsorge for nearly three decades, Larson chose for his final year at the university a corner, fourth-floor office at brand-new Austin Hall as an exclamation point after spending 34 years in the college\u2019s former home, Bexell Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to you guys to make (Austin Hall) a home,\u201d he told the dozens of faculty and staff who turned out to wish him a well \u2013 a crowd whose size surprised the unassuming project-management legend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my wife as we were driving over here, \u2018I wonder if anybody will show up; it\u2019s a Friday afternoon,\u2019\u2019 Larson said.<\/p>\n

Fellow management professor Keith Leavitt emceed the event (and arranged for the Young soundtrack). Leavitt said Larson was defined by genuine concern for others exemplified by how he shielded young faculty from things they didn\u2019t need to worry about and spoke with candor about the issues they did need to be concerned with.<\/p>\n

\u201cErik will tell you exactly what\u2019s on his mind,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cAnd he embodies the culture of the College of Business: Performance should never sacrifice people. He\u2019ll always remind you not to take yourself too seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

In retirement, Larson plans to follow Young\u2019s advice to keep on rockin\u2019 in the free world \u2013 with an emphasis on the world part of that. He\u2019s been to 45 countries and wants to visit another 45, likely teaching part time wherever his travels find him and his wife, Ann \u2013 whom he thanked from the podium for \u201cputting up with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how she does it,\u201d Larson said, training his eyes on her in the crowd. \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fittingly, as management professor, Neil Young devotee and renowned good guy Erik Larson took the podium at his retirement celebration May 15, Young\u2019s tour de force \u201cHeart of Gold\u201d poured forth from the sound system in the Robert Family Events Room. \u201cI want to live; I want to give,\u201d Young sang. \u201cI\u2019ve been a miner … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Larson: Rockin’ in the free world”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[121651,706212,706213],"class_list":["post-3149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-research","tag-erik-larson","tag-keath-leavitt","tag-neil-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3149"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3154,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149\/revisions\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}