Larry served as the chair of ASFPM from 1979-82 and volunteered as the executive director for 15 years from 1982 until it became a paid staff position in February 1997. He then served as the association’s executive director until 2012, when he became the director emeritus and senior policy adviser. He served in that capacity until July 2022 when after 60 years in the profession he transitioned to director emeritus on a voluntary basis.

From the beginning
The early makings of ASFPM began in 1976 when state floodplain managers from Region 5 met with HUD NFIP staff in Chicago. In 1977 and 1978, the group got together the day before meeting with NFIP staff to decide if an organization of NFIP State Coordinators (actually state floodplain managers) should be formed and all agreed to do so. Gordon Lance from Indiana agreed to serve as chair. Then, in 1979 Patricia Bloomgren from Minnesota chaired the group and hosted the meeting with states and NFIP staff in St. Paul. She put a notice in the American Planning Association newsletter that the Midwest states were meeting with NFIP officials to discuss concerns with flood maps and invited other states to join the conversation. Instead of the six Region 5 states showing up, there were representatives from 19 states in attendance, including Alaska, California, Louisiana, and New York. It was at that moment that it became clear that NFIP concerns were not confined to Midwest, and there was a need for a national organization.

Larson was elected chair at the 1979 meeting in St. Paul, and so began meeting regularly with NFIP staff either in Chicago or via phone to explain the importance of state programs to a well-functioning NFIP. Larry and his colleague at the in Wisconsin DNR, Mark Riebau, convinced Gloria Jimenez, manager of the NFIP that the NFIP would be greatly improved if cost-share funding were provided to hire added state staff to work with communities to reduce flood losses and guide development to be less flood prone. Thus, the State Assistance Program (SAP) was born. This program evolved into the Community Assistance Program (CAP) a few years later, which still exists today.

Chair 1979-82
After three years as chair, the ASFPM Board of Directors wanted to make Larson’s chairmanship a permanent position, but he declined and stressed the need for ASFPM to expand beyond Region 5 states in order to be viewed as a national organization. Bob Hendrix from Nebraska agreed to serve as chair, but only if Larry would become the association’s executive director and continue to put out ASFPM newsletters, coordinate board calls, and organize the annual meeting, as well as run the Association and keep up with the correspondence, which was all by U.S. mail in the day.

In 1982, Larry, with considerable assistance and urging from Jon Kusler, hosted the first national ASFPM conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The conference was open to locals, private sector and all floodplain management professionals. There were 175 attendees for the two-and-a-half-day conference, which included a Thursday afternoon field trip to see the relocation/retreat projects in Soldiers Grove and Prairie du Chien, Wis. (some of the first floodplain relocations in the nation). That same general conference format is used today, with the exception that the conference is now three full days, plus an additional day of optional preconference training workshops, and attendance runs from 1,100 to 2,000; with both in-person and virtual participants.

No Adverse Impact (NAI): in 1999 and 2,000 Larry worked with Doug Plasencia to develop the NAI concept because the NFIP and other agencies like USACE seemed uninterested in worrying whether permitted development or projects would increase flood elevations and flood losses on other properties or communities. The NAI approach was designed for community use since federal programs were not using it. The concept of NAI is to ensure that all development will reduce flood risk and protect natural floodplain functions, all without adversely impacting other people or property.

Doug gave a plenary presentation at the 2000 Conference in Austin, Texas explaining NAI and why ASFPM was developing the approach for communities, states, and tribes to use. Since that time, ASFPM has developed many NAI how-to guides for communities to use in their regulations, planning and other ongoing community activities.

During his time as chair and executive director, Larson traveled to Washington, DC dozens of times each year to meet with federal partners, agency and Congressional staff, and partner organizations to promote wise flood risk management. He convinced USACE and FEMA to meet regularly with ASFPM and the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA) to discuss policy and standards on levees and all floodplain development issues. This went on for years. In fact, the group was meeting in Anchorage, Alaska in August 2005 when the Corps of Engineers and FEMA had to leave suddenly because Hurricane Katrina was about to make landfall in New Orleans and they had to undertake response actions. Katrina was another seminal event, like the 1993 Midwest floods, which was a monumental disaster, but led to few short-term policy or legislative changes, though some eventually did happen.

Larry met in DC with the Interagency Floodplain Management task force ITF-TF, which included 10 to 15 federal agencies that met regularly to update each other on what they were doing to reduce flood risk, including flood mapping, regulations, mitigation, and grants. The agencies would meet and share what they were doing, and then ask Larry update them on what states and communities were doing to manage flood risk.

In 1980, Gilbert White invited Larry to represent states and locals each year when Gilbert hosted the federal agencies and academia at the Natural Hazards Center in Boulder, CO. During this annual meeting, attended by many federal agency heads, Gilbert would work to increase ASFPM’s visibility by urging federal agencies to coordinate with ASFPM because the association understands what’s happening at the local/ground level.   Larry attended this workshop for decades, and served on the NHC advisory committee for Gilbert and his ultimate successor Dennis Mileti.

In 1981, Larry encouraged the ASFPM Board to pass resolutions to (1) ask President Reagan to continue EO 11988 to protect federal taxpayer investments from flooding; (2) urge the Water Resources Council to continue to meet and coordinate federal flood risk management; (3) support the USACE technical support program FPMS; and (4) support NRCS flood mapping.

Larry was lead author on the ASFPM National Flood Programs and Policy document, which contains more than 400 policy recommendations on all aspects of mapping, regulating, mitigating and insuring flood risk in the nation. He was assisted greatly in the 2015 version by Bridget Faust in organizing, vetting and cross referencing the document.

Additional key milestones by Larson to help ASFPM grow and evolve include:

• Served as executive director from 1982-2012; a voluntary position from 1982-1997.
• As executive director, grew the ASFPM budget from zero to enough to hire two staff members by 1990’s and then to managing a staff of 16 by 2012.
• Fostered the development of the Certified Floodplain Management (CFM) program with support for John Ivey, the Certification Board of Regents (CBOR) and others to write the first CFM exam and promote the program.  The pilot exam was held in 1998 at the national conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the first proctored exam in 1999 at the Portland Oregon conference.  The number of CFMs has grown from zero when the program was founded in 1993 to more than 10,000 nationwide in 2023. 
• Worked with Congress to reform NFIP many times over the years, including testifying on the Hill when asked during committee hearings before the House and Senate.
• Ensured ASFPM had the budget to support the CFM and the ASFPM Foundation as well as adequate support for Board of Directors to travel and meet face-to-face, not just at Conference but one additional time in the year to set goals and objectives and plan how to grow and serve our members and the nation’s taxpayers.
• Helped expand membership from states to now include local governments, the private sector, academia, NGOs, students, and others.
• Helped establish state chapters starting in 1980. As of 2023, ASFPM has 38 chapters.
• Urged ASFPM Board to add wetland protection as a natural way to reduce flood risk
• Created the Science Services Program in 2003, which started with just one project and evolved into what is now known as ASFPM’s Flood Science Center.  The FSC works with federal, academic, foundation and NGO partners in studying the technical, biologic, social and economic aspects of flood science.

Worked with Wally Wilson and Diane Brown and the Board to create, organize and evolve the ASFPM Foundation into an effective organization to raise funds and support common goals of ASFPM, with a focus on adding young people to the flood risk management profession.