Haiti earthquake victim Ben Larson is laid to rest in Decorah

2006 Luther College graduate Ben Larson was only 25 years old when he was killed January 12th when a building collapsed on top of him in the earthquake in Haiti. That has made it difficult for his family and friends to accept that someone with so much warmth and energy and joy for life should die at such a young age.

On Saturday afternoon in Decorah his friends and family were given a small amount of solace when his body was laid to rest in Phelps Cemetery, following a funeral service at First Lutheran Church. Larson's body had been trapped beneath the rubble at St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince for several weeks following the earthquake. But a team of searchers recovered Larson's body on January 28th and returned it to Decorah.

Ben Larson sang in choirs all four years he attended Luther College, serving as president of the Luther College Nordic Choir his senior year. Friends remember that Larson was constantly singing. On Saturday, 57 members of the Nordic Choir gathered at First Lutheran Church to sign songs during the funeral service, including the song "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

First Lutheran Church minister Reverend Steve Jacobsen said the family had scheduled the funeral service so people could "share in their grief and in their faith." Both of Ben Larson's parents are Lutheran ministers and Ben Larson, his wife, Renee Splichal Larson, and his cousin, Jonathan Larson, all three students at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, were in Haiti learning from the people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti when the earthquake struck. Renee and Jon escaped after the top two floors of the six-story St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince collapsed in the wake of the earthquake, but Ben was trapped inside the building.

Reverend Dr. Craig Nessan from the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, who gave the sermon at Saturday's funeral service, told those attending "the stories about life with Ben will continue to give comfort in this time of sorrow." Rev. Nessan concluded, "This is a story that begins with God and ends with God."

Family members asked that memorials be directed to the ELCA Disaster Response for Haiti, the ELCA Global mission for the Eglise Lutherienne d'Haiti, St. Jospeh's Home for Boys in Haiti or to Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, where Ben was a student. A statement from the family stated, "In the Haitian rubble, Ben's life joins these dear beloved people of God; all those parents crying for their children; young widows calling out for their husbands; new orphans searching for their parents."