Saratoga News Deborah Larson Former assist. city manager loses battle with rare cancer By Sarah Lombardo Saratoga City Manager Larry Perlin still remembers the phone call he got in March from Assistant City Manager Deborah Larson. "She called to tell me that she was undergoing tests as a result of something she had found. In the following week and a half, she called and said she would not be able to go on working, that she had to devote all her energy to fighting this cancer," he said. "And there was just something in the way she talked about it that you just knew she was going to confront this head-on. She said, 'I fully intend to beat this disease like the last one.' It epitomized, to me, her whole approach to life in general." But Larson, 48, lost her bout with adenocarcinoma cancer last week. Larson died in her Milpitas home at 5 a.m. on Oct. 26. The battle with cancer was the second for Larson, who successfully fought non-Hodgkin's lymphoma four years ago. After several cancer-free years, Perlin said, she had just been declared cured of the first cancer last November. Larson was hired to oversee Saratoga's newly formed administrative services department in November 1997. She replaced Thomas Fil, who had resigned in October to take a finance director position with the city of Belmont. The same day Fil turned in his resignation, a letter from Larson introducing herself arrived in the mail. "When Deborah Larson came our way, she sort of fell out of the sky like manna from heaven," he said. At the time of her hiring, the city was still recovering from the November 1996 repeal of the utility-users tax, which resulted in the loss of some $1.4 million in funds. City officials cited Larson's reputation for helping cash-strapped cities recover as one reason they were glad to bring her on board. Her record, Perlin said, spoke for itself: From 1993 to 1997, she was the chief financial officer and associate county administrator for Maricopa County, Ariz., where she was credited with bringing that county back from brink of financial disaster. Her past experience also included stints as a reorganization consultant for the city of Seattle, the director of finance for San Jose--at a time when that city was facing serious investment losses--and an international finance consultant in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Perlin said he never considered her as no longer working for the city, but rather on a leave of absence. "I guess it was always my hope that she would return," he said. "Saratoga was very lucky to have had her." [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, November 4, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.