Bob Larson Stadium to be dedicated Friday

Stanwood High's Bob Larson Stadium will be dedicated to the late superintendent of schools who sought and secured the funds for the facility back in the 1970s. PHOTO BY JOHN GALBREATH | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS The Bob Larson Stadium will be dedicated before this Friday’s season-opening football game between the Spartans and Kamiak High School Knights on the Stanwood High campus.

The dedication will begin with a brief ceremony in front of the stadium at approximately 6:15 p.m. by the Stanwood High AAAA Booster Club during their pre-game barbecue. It will then move inside to the track in front of the home stands where, with his family in attendance, the complex will be officially dedicated before the game starts.

The former superintendent of schools who spearheaded the campaign to secure a federal grant to build the facility back in 1976, Bob Larson passed away March 25, 2010. The stadium was re-named to honor the former school leader, who also served as Stanwood mayor from 1985 to 1993. He was a local icon whose people skills were employed to great advantage during the campaign to secure 100 percent federal funding for the stadium complex.

That complex, which included a football field and stadium, all-weather tennis courts and a track, a soccer and P.E. field and parking, was completed in the fall of 1977 for $1,815,000 with the grant that Larson and the Stanwood School Board successfully secured in December 1976.