TOMS RIVER – Jon H. Larson is being remembered as the longest-serving president of Ocean County College. He died November 17 following a battle with cancer at the age of 84.
Larson was president of OCC from August 2000 through June 2023, and made Toms River his home for 26 years. The Jon and Judith Larson Student Center was dedicated in 2016.
He had been Platoon Leader/Company Commander in the Army’s 63rd Armored Battalion, 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley, Kansas, from 1964-1966.
An alumni of Norwich University, Larson’s career is highlighted by a serious of administrative roles in upper education. This included Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from 1972-1977. From there, he worked for Frederick Community College, Frederick, Maryland, from 1977-1997 and served as the Vice President of Administration/Dean of Institutional Services. He was President of Luzerne Community College in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, from 1997-2000 before taking his “dream job” of 23 years, as President of Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey from 2000-2023.
“Jon devoted his working life to making Ocean County College a better institution than when he arrived there,” his obituary notes.
He was pre-deceased by his wife in 2017 and his son, Jon Michael, in 2019. He is survived by his sisters Nancy Harman of Yarmouth, ME and Martha Cabot of Sebring, FL; daughter, Kristina Marie (Hebb) Larson of Virginia Beach, VA, and son, David Alan Larson (Angela) of Mitchell, GA.; four grandchildren, Michael and Zachary Hebb, Jeannie Hines (Morris), and Ryan Cannon (Justene); seven great grandchildren, Ovella, Luke, Addison, and Nathaniel Hines, LeeAni, Raelyn, and Amelia Cannon.
Services will be held from 6-9 p.m. on November 21 at Anderson and Campbell Funeral Home, 703 Main Street in Toms River. Interment and burial will be private.
Larson, the patriarch of the family, saw his true purpose in life as taking care of his family and his cats. In lieu of flowers, donations are welcome to any no-kill animal shelter or a cancer charity in his memory.
