Dr. John Larkin

Dr. John Edward Michael Larkin Orthopedic Surgeon 88 year old Eastsider Passed on Sunday, July 14th, 2019 surrounded by family and loving wife. Preceded in death by parents John and Ann (Wedebrand) and sister Marilyn L. Eberhardt (James) and their son Joel.. Survived by wife Colles, brother David Larkin (Terry), and nieces and nephews: David Jr. (Doina), Victoria Erickson (Stewart), Amy Larkin, Susan Basarich, James Eberhardt Jr. (Terri), Jay Eberhardt, Jack Eberhardt (Gina), Cassandra Knott, & Jane Rasmussen and many grand nieces and nephews and one great grand niece. A Graduate of Harding High School (1948), John started out in General College and received his B.S. in Science Education from the University of Minnesota in 1953. From 1953-55 he served in the U.S. Army, being deployed to Japan after basic training in Kansas. 1955-56 found him at mid-semester in Switzerland, where he studied German in Bern and then transferred to the University of Geneva to study Anatomy which was not being offered that spring in Bern. John went on to graduate from the U of M Medical School in 1960 and that same year began a 6 year stint at Harvard Medical School, training at Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital where, ultimately, he served as Chief Resident. Influenced by the Mayo brothers’ approach to medicine, John strove to keep up with new technologies that merited attention. A medical pioneer, he performed the first total joint replacement procedures in the Twin Cities as well as the first arthroscopies in the state of Minnesota. A patron of the arts, John served on the boards of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (32 years), the Irish America Cultural Institute (31 years), the MN Opera (9 years) & the MN Museum of American Art (27 years). Over time he amassed a small collection of American art that he loved to share with others either through museum loans, opening his home to art lovers or giving works to local institutions, the MN History Center among them. An avid gardener, John was an acclaimed horticulturalist, His gardens were elected to the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens by the St. Paul Garden Club – not for pristinely tended flower beds but for horticultural interest and his long-term effort to push zone limitations. {“Sometimes you discover a tree is an annual!”] He delighted in serving as a member of the St. Paul Parks Conservancy from 2008-2017. John was also a tireless advocate for education ~ ask ANY of his nieces or nephews! He contributed greatly to the leadership of the U of M as an alumni representative on a University Senate Committee, the Landscape Arboretum Foundation Board, the College of Education & Human Developments Campaign MN Leadership Committee, as well as the Board of the James Ford Bell Library. He also served as a member of the Minnesota State Council for Quality Education . He had a love for football from grade school through University and into his years in the Army. He was so proud to have been elected to the Army's prestigious Far East All-Star Football Team. As a member of that team, he joined his teammates against the Marines in the 1954 Japan Inter-Service Football Championship in Meiji Stadium in Toyko on December 19, 1954. In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to The Minnesota Museum of American Art (St. Paul) or the U of M Landscape Arboretum.