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David Larson honed his leadership skills in FFA

Former Webster City FFA’er builds strong business in West Des Moines

By Lori Berglund - | Feb 10, 2023

-Submitted photo
Dave and Jolene Larson take in one of their favorite pastimes at an Iowa State football game.

There’s a current that runs through David Larson’s life. It starts with family, the one that raised him and the one that he and his wife Jolene raised together.

It leads to service, defined by leadership, flavored with friendships, and always leading to new and exciting adventures.

Larson was raised on a farm north of Webster City. His parents, Trudy and the late Rod Larson, were strong advocates for their children, always encouraging them to get involved and do their best in whatever they set their mind to do.

“My family came from a background of participation,” Larson said. “I was taught leadership; that comes from my family … FFA honed and refined it.”

Rod and Trudy Larson raised three children on their diversified farm of corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs. They made time to be involved in a variety of community and farm organizations.

“My mother was a leader in the Cattlemen Association and the Cowbelles; she participated state and nationally,” Larson recalled. “My dad was an early leader in the Iowa Farm Business Association.”

The couple also built a thriving real estate business, and were known in the community for doing all things with great gusto, and plenty of humor. They raised their children to do the same.

Larson joined FFA as a freshman in Webster City and promptly got involved in nearly all facets of the organization. He credits such things as parliamentary procedure and public speaking contests as building blocks for his career, first with the Iowa Soybean Association, and then as a private business owner.

Early on in his FFA days, Larson said he realized that he needed to focus, and not to spread himself too thin, in order to succeed.

“It actually became a choice,” Larson recalled. “You always have to decide where to put your efforts, and high school is a time of choice and growth.”

In addition to FFA, Larson had been active in the Lynx Imperial Marching Band. It was one of the highest rated bands in the state, enjoyed great community support, and required lots of practice time.

“I made a choice after my sophomore year that I couldn’t do both,” Larson said. “I chose FFA.”

He still gets a little friendly grief about that decision from the former band instructor who remains a friend, but has no regrets. It’s difficult to do all things well, and dedication to one thing can require the sacrifice of another.

“I made a decision that FFA is where I wanted to focus,” he said.

The result of that decision, he noted, has yielded so much over the years, and continues to prosper.

A 1980 graduate of Webster City High School, Larson went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in ag business, along with a minor in farm management from Iowa State University. He spent 10 years in a variety of positions with the Iowa Soybean Association.

“I started as field staff, working grassroots, and traveled the state for several years,” Larson recalled.

He would grow to take on more responsibilities, coordinating public affairs, industry and corporate relations, and as director of legislative policy.

Like his parents before him, he was also drawn to independent entrepreneurship, and eventually left to form a new business with a partner. He is now sole proprietor of Larson Enterprises LLC in West Des Moines, and has welcomed his son, Alex, into the business with him.

“We work nationally and internationally with a lot of commodity and food safety organizations,” Larson said. “We work across a wide variety of industries.”

The company provides consulting and sales services to a plethora of nonprofit and for-profit groups and organizations. The lessons he learned in FFA are now ingrained in him and provide an unseen compass directing how he does business.

“The way I look at things is often influenced by FFA,” Larson said. “We always look at the bigger picture. FFA is about community engagement, agriculture, leadership, and understanding.”

He looks back on his active involvement in both prepared and extemporaneous public speaking as a time of growth and building skills that would serve him well in the world of business. He was a state champion public speaker in soil conservation and advanced to the regional level.

“It taught me to be prepared to be extemporaneous,” Larson explained. “You have to be able to offer a cognizant argument while listening, and not just talking over people. You’ve done some research, and you get to the point where you admit, ‘I don’t know a particular answer, but I can find the answer to it.'”

The skills taught in FFA were a wonderful complement to the role models he had in parents Rod and Trudy. He and wife Jolene met at Iowa State, and together have raised a family of six children, passing on to them the same passion to succeed. Their children have chosen careers as far ranging as nursing, to agronomy, civil engineering and information technology.

And it’s clear, that like Rod and Trudy, Dave and Jolene cheer them on every step of the way.

His years in FFA, though long ago now, are still with him. The memories of leadership camps and trips with fellow members provide a smile. But it’s not just local Chapter members.

Through district and state involvement, FFA’ers have a built-in network as they graduate and build careers. It’s so common to meet fellow FFA’ers decades down the road, who still thank FFA for the foundation it gave them.

“FFA gave me the ability to understand the bigger picture,” Larson said. “I give a significant amount of credit to FFA for giving me the ability to succeed.”