Emma Evelyn Larson

Emma Evelyn Stephens Larson passed away peacefully at her home in Tucson on 16 November 2024 surrounded by those she loved. She is survived by her children Robyn Larson McCarthy of New Ipswich, N.H. and Jonathan Larson of Tucson and their families, including three beloved grandsons. Her husband and high-school sweetheart, Harold P. “Hal” Larson, passed away in November 2023.

Emma was born on 10 January 1938 in Scranton, Pennsylvania to William and Emma Stephens. After the family moved to Connecticut, she attended Manchester High School with her three brothers, spending one memorable summer traveling Europe with her Girl Scout troop. Studying chemistry as an undergraduate at Vassar College on a full scholarship, she dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. Emma and Hal married after college graduation in 1960 and moved to Indiana to attend Purdue University. She earned a master’s degree in chemistry, becoming the first woman instructor in the department. Grad school vacations consisted of camping, hiking, and caving in the Midwest and Northern states and the Canadian Rockies.

A year in Orsay, France, for Hal’s post-doctoral fellowship – with their newborn daughter – continued Emma’s foreign travel adventures. After leaving France, and all their New England family and friends behind, Emma helped drive cross-country in a 1964 Corvair convertible so Hal could begin work at the University of Arizona. She later recalled how, approaching Tucson from the East on I-10, in the barren time between Spring wildflowers and Summer rains, she just cried, wondering what they had done. Renting a house in what is now the Sam Hughes neighborhood, Emma found a spiritual home in nearby Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. Within a short time of settling in Tucson, their son was born.

Emma embraced the Southwest lifestyle, soon involving herself in every detail of building a house on what was then the outskirts of town in the mountain foothills. Landscape design and gardening, reading and painting, and church volunteer work filled what free time her two kids, a fox terrier, and work as a math teacher allowed. Enthusiastic theater- and concert-goers, Emma and Hal supported the local arts and often attended several performances a week during the season. Cooking French cuisine with their best friends was a favorite way to spend New Year’s and anniversaries.

With the arrival of grandchildren and retirement, foreign travel gave way to long summer vacations in Sedona and on the coast of Maine. Christmas in Tucson was her favorite holiday, with matching shirts for the grandsons always under the tree. Surrounded by the three boys, gardening projects, jigsaw puzzles, and watching The Last of the Summer Wine over pizza became favorite pastimes. Despite chronic health problems in recent years, Emma’s love of reading (especially Jane Austen and historical mysteries) and her penchant for logic puzzles kept her as sharp and witty as ever. She was an avid supporter of veterans’ groups, educational foundations, and grassroots organizations that offer individuals a hand up to a better life.

The family welcomes donations in her memory to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the Gospel Rescue Mission in Tucson, or your favorite veterans’ charity.