Albertville Teacher Felt "Blessed," Was Respected by Peers

St. Michael Principal Andrew Merfeld called Monday a "very difficult" day for his staff and students at the St. Michael-Albertville Middle School West, as the school mourned the loss of 43-year-old Tim Larson, who was shot and killed east of Willmar Saturday.

"Every time you'd ask him how is day was he'd say his day was 'blessed.' He never had a negative thing to say about anybody or anything and he was thankful for all the time he had," Merfeld told KSTP Channel 5's Tim Sherno in an interview that aired last night. "He will be greatly missed. He already is greatly missed."

Superintendent said Larson was someone who was "respected by his peers" throughout the building. That might have been an understatement, as messages of sympathy for Larson and his wife and two children came in from the Elk River School District and the Crossroads School in St. Francis, two of his previous stops in his teaching career.

Students and parents in St. Michael-Albertville said they were "shocked." Many said their kids, though they might not have had "Mr." Larson as a teacher, new him and was one of the teachers they enjoyed seeing in the halls.

Larson came to St. Michael as the middle school model changed here, with the new buildings adding fifth grade and splitting into to two separate sites–East and West. He had been at West for three years.

He was an avid hunter. Friends and relatives said he was hunting on his father's land last weekend. When a confrontation with Delbert Huber unfolded, it ended in tragedy. The 81-year-old Huber is expected to be charged today.

Larson was an ex-Marine and a collegiate wrestler. He'd found a new niche in recent years, running marathons over the summers. He'd even turned that into a charitable cause, running as an ambassador for Water For Life. According to his Web page, he'd raised more than $21,000 for the charity, which helps rural areas in Africa and South America find clean water sources via pumps and wells.