Next Saturday, the Friends of the Aberdeen Museum will honor John Larson — longtime director of the Polson Museum in Hoquiam — as their Harborite of the Year.

That’s not irony; it’s community.

Larson is “a Hoquiam kid with a Hoquiam job that celebrates Hoquiam,” reads the award announcement from the Friends — but when fire swept through the Aberdeen Museum of History three months ago, “he had our back, and he had it in a big way.”

Larson rushed to the scene June 9 as the fire raged, offering a shoulder and pledging support to the stricken leaders of the Aberdeen museum.

“He was here with us as it happened giving us moral support, and afterwards helping with anything he could do for us,” said Aberdeen Museum director Dave Morris. “I have tremendous respect for him, and … I am grateful to be one of his peers.”

In the days and weeks after the fire, Larson set up a donation jar at the Polson Museum and encouraged other Harbor museums and businesses to do the same. In addition, he helped sell buttons and T-shirts to raise funds.

He also acted as Aberdeen’s liaison with the greater historical community.

“It felt a little like it became a full-time job, just fielding all the inquiries from the rest of the state: ‘How can we help? What needs to be done here?’” said Larson. “Within that first week, I talked to the Seattle Art Museum, the Washington State Historical Society, the Washington Museum Association, the Secretary of State’s Office — all these entities that had no way to reach them directly.”

He was asked to give a situation report during the Museum Association’s annual meeting later that month in Bellingham, and as a result the group did some “impromptu fundraising,” diverting some of the state conference funds to help Aberdeen.

But the most meaningful thing Larson did, according to longtime museum volunteer Becky Carossino, was to make sure the Aberdeen Museum had a presence in the Founders Day Parade, which took place just three weeks after the fire. He brought out a 1919 Model T truck for board members and volunteers to ride.

“He never pushed, but was always there, willing to help,” said Carossino. “He’s very gracious — just a remarkable man. I can’t say enough about him.”

To Larson, it was a simple matter of supporting his community.

“There isn’t competition in the museum world. Museum people are always willing to help other museum people,” he said. “I mean, it’s not just their problem, it’s the entire Harbor’s problem. … It’s a shared history, the whole region.”

Each year, the Friends board solicits nominations from its membership of more than 100 people and then sets a meeting (usually in July) to discuss the nominees and take a vote. The museum’s destruction made the process uniquely difficult this year, noted Friends board member Nancy Cuyle.

“We had records of who all (the past winners) were, and we had this plaque that goes on the wall that we add the names to each year, but all of that is gone now,” she said. “We remember back several years, but not 22 years. It’s really sad.”

Still, there was no question that Larson would be this year’s honoree, said Cuyle: “The people that were there definitely voted for him with strength.”

“This is a real honor,” said Larson. “I feel like I just did what I could. It makes me feel good that they thought highly of what I stepped up to do.”

He added: “Now that they’re actually into the building (for salvage efforts), I think there will be new ways in which people like me can mobilize others to assist. They’re creating new history here. There will be things that find a new life; even if it’s a charred mess, it will tell a story.”

Larson will be formally honored on Saturday at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen. A social hour will begin at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7. The keynote speaker will be John Hughes, the state’s chief historian.

Tickets are $30, available only until Wednesday at the new Friends of the Aberdeen Museum office at 200 W. Market St., Aberdeen; City Center Drug in Aberdeen; and the Polson Museum and Harbor Drug, both in Hoquiam.

For more information, visit the event page on Facebook, titled “2018 Harborite of the Year Dinner.”

(Kat Bryant | Grays Harbor News Group) Harborite of the Year John Larson’s current full-time project is restoring the Hubble House, a 1915 “Japanesque Craftsman” bungalow next door to the Polson Museum. With a grant of about $40,000 from the Washington State Heritage Capital Projects Fund, he’s fixing it up for use as a community gathering spot and museum storage.