during his time playing defensive end in football at Douglas MacArthur High School in the North East Independent School District in Bexar County, from which he graduated in 1977. In 1981, he obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University in College Station, where Larson's father had obtained his veterinary degree. He married and divorced right out of college. Prior to starting his own company, American Consortium, which distributes industrial products for Polaroid, he worked for Nalen Chemical Company and Johnson & Johnson.