Page 18 - Priorities #44 2009-July

Ted Larson, his wife Dottie, and their daughter Erika
“The Force”
to Children of the World
by Lindsay Farino
Ted Larson, Priory Class of 1984, wants Priory students to know something he didn’t figure out until deep into his college education. Larson emphasizes that, throughout your education, always keep in mind your favorite thing to do and figure out how to focus and develop that interest during your college education, so that you can
“get a job to do your favorite thing – the thing that fires you up.” Since his junior year at Cal Poly, where Larson achieved B.S. and M.A. degrees
in Computer Science, he has been following his passion for computers. Now Larson is co-founder of OLogic, Inc., a robotics company that brings robotic technology to everyday products. Soon, children of all ages will be able to discover “The Force” within themselves, as did Yoda and Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films.
The path toward this achievement began shortly before Larson started his high school education
at Priory. Larson’s father worked as the VP of Marketing for a Silicon Valley startup, Versatec. When Larson was in middle school, one of the first personal computer companies, Commodore, gave his father’s marketing group an early personal computer called the Commodore PET in hopes that the group would take it to an important tradeshow with them and use it to demonstrate their printers. Versatec’s engineers were not comfortable the PET
Priory Alumni Bringing
during an era when computers were usually the size of a huge refrigerator, so Larson’s dad brought the computer home to play with. Without consciously realizing it, Larson began to develop his life-long passion as he learned to use the Commodore PET and also bought a book to learn to write computer programs for it.
Larson’s second computer, given to him in eighth grade, was from Radio Shack. As he began ninth grade at Priory, the school was developing
its own technology program. Larson remembers the Priory’s first Apple computers in the library.
A graduate of Corte Madera, Larson originally wanted to follow his friends to large schools like Woodside High, but he said graduating from the Priory was an example of parents knowing what is best for a child. Though he grumbled throughout his first day at Priory, which was then a small, all- boys school, Priory “worked out great for me – it was the weirdest thing.” Larson thrived in classes with five students; he had never experienced that before and quickly realized how much more he was learning. Larson describes the Class of 1984 as “a rowdy bunch.” Active in the Drama Club, Larson enjoyed the plays Priory co-produced with the local girls schools Castilleja and Sacred Heart. It was also a chance for Priory boys to meet girls in the community.
Larson credits his father with advice that has led him to important paths throughout his career: “Keep track of everyone you meet.” If he had not heeded that advice, he would not have ended up in the masters program at Cal Poly, graduating with
a Masters in Computer Science. He also might
not have kept in touch with a close college friend who worked at Hewlett-Packard which led Larson to his first job at HP. In 1992, when he began at
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OLogic/TankChair partnered to create this tank chair. It has a tank track system that allows it to go through mud, sand, up hills, over rocks. Imagine the freedom of movement this brings to wheelchair-bound people.