Amherst, Lyle E. Larson, retired Lutheran pastor of Amherst, Massachusetts, died April 20, 2017 at age 87 following complications of Parkinson’s disease and a stroke suffered in 2015. Rev. Larson served for nearly 25 years as a missionary in Tokyo, Japan and following that served at Grace Lutheran Church in Scarsdale, New York.  After retiring to Washington, Massachusetts he served for more than a year as interim pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Amherst.  Funeral services are 11am on Saturday, April 29 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Amherst, and interment is to be scheduled for Newman Grove, Nebraska.  

Rev. Larson was born on August 29, 1929 to Mary Larson and M. Carl Larson on their farm in Newman Grove, Nebraska and was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church there.  He served in the Air Force as a Supply Sergeant at Johnson Air Base in Japan.  After his discharge, Rev. Larson attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1961.  

Lyle and Melba Larson were married in Minnesota in 1960 and following ordination at Trinity Lutheran Church in Newman Grove, and the birth of their first child, the young family traveled by passenger liner to Yokohama, Japan to begin work with the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The early years in Tokyo were consumed by language study and the birth of two more children.  Lyle was assigned to the Hongo Student Center and Hongo Lutheran Church, virtually across the street from Tokyo University.  There, he encountered many young Japanese students curious about Christianity as well as the English language.  Those were turbulent years at the University and Lyle remembered that many days the wafting tear gas would sting his eyes on his way to the nearby subway. 

Seeking a deeper understanding of Japan, Lyle packed up the young family and sailed back across the Pacific in 1966 to study Japanese history at the University of Michigan and received his M.A. in 1967.  He returned to Japan and continued serving at the student center until 1970 when he accepted a position to teach Japanese language and culture at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois.  

Lyle and Melba returned to Japan in 1971 and Lyle was assigned to Tokyo Lutheran Church, which had been established at its current site near bustling Shinjuku in 1923.  Serving with a Japanese co-pastor, Lyle’s ministry and preaching were conducted in Japanese.  He took up the study of Japanese calligraphy (shodo) and studied for more than a decade with a distinguished master and advanced through the formal ranking system with many published works.  Lyle served on the board of The American School in Japan, which his three children attended, as well as on the board of the Lutheran mission in Japan, and contributed to numerous building and real estate projects throughout the years.  

After Lyle and Melba’s children had left home for St. Olaf College, Amherst College and Williams College, they returned to the United States in 1985.  Following an interim at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Niagara Falls, New York, Rev. Larson was installed as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Scarsdale, New York where he served until his retirement in 1994.  Lyle and Melba immediately felt at home, as the proximity to Manhattan and the considerable Japanese expatriate community drew on many of their experiences in Tokyo.  Lyle particularly enjoyed the ministry to children and their families at Grace, which had an active pre-school as did Tokyo Lutheran Church.  

As retirement approached, Lyle and Melba were drawn toward the bucolic hills of the Berkshires that they had encountered in their many trips to Williams College, with similarities to the mountainous countryside of Lake Nojiri where they would vacation in Japan.  They built a house with log construction in the town of Washington.  Lyle honed his carpentry skills by completing many of the finishings and a separate workshop, and Lyle and Melba poured their energies into making syrup every year from the sugar maples on their 12 acres.  They were active at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, and Lyle would fill in as needed at other Lutheran churches in the region, including for more than a year in Amherst.  

Lyle and Melba moved to Amherst in 2011 where their son’s family had moved, and were able to attend the many sports, music and other school activities of their three grandchildren Edward, Catherine and William.  They were also reacquainted with many in the congregation when they became active members at Immanuel Lutheran Church. 

Rev. Larson is survived by his wife Melba of Amherst; daughter Susan of Las Vegas, Nevada; son Nathanael and three grandchildren of Amherst; and daughter Rachel of Vashon Island, Washington.  He is also survived by his brother Donald (Lois) Larson of South Sioux City, Nebraska; sister Elinor Boettcher of Newman Grove, Nebraska; sister Janet (James) Atkinson of Albion, Nebraska; and sister-in-law Marian Larson of Tekamah, Nebraska.  He was preceded in death by his brother Gerald Larson of Seward, Nebraska; twin brothers Carl and Dale in infancy; brother-in-law Arthur Boettcher; paternal grandparents Robert and Bertha Larson; and maternal grandparents Thorstein and Anna Olson.