Bea V. Larsen, 1929 - 2025
Bea V. Larsen (nee Rosenblum), retired attorney, mediator and author of “The Third Person in the Room”, passed away on August 12, 2025 She was 96.
Bea’s parents emigrated from Russia, around 1917, escaping the violent pogroms designed to eliminate Russia’s entire Jewish population. They soon moved into the homes of family members who had preceded them and settled on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Fate brought Bea to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she met and fell in love with Leonard Larsen. They married in 1949, while they were both still students. Len moved them to New York for his edThey were a loving couple until Len’s death, in 2002, of Parkinson’s Disease.
After Len earned his PhD in geology at Columbia University, he began his teaching career as an assistant professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati. By the end of the decade, two young sons, Neil and Grey, and a baby daughter, Julia, completed her family.
In the spring of 1964, Bea read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a catalyst for the second wave of the women’s movement. Bea tentatively suggested the possibility of attending law school to Len. Without a pause, he responded, “What a great idea. Perfect for you!”
Bea entered law school in 1965 at Northern Kentucky University’s Chase School of law In 1969, she was one of only two women in her graduating class of 44. At the age of forty, she began to practice law. Her legal career began at the Legal Aid Society, where she served for seven years. In 1980, she opened her solo law office
In 1987, Bea served as the first woman President of the Cincinnati Bar Association. She initiated the BLAC-CBA Roundtable to diversify the legal profession in Greater Cincinnati by advocating, educating and evaluating progress toward inclusion of African-American attorneys in the practice of law as well as in leadership positions in the profession and throughout the community.
In the mid-1980s, Bea spent time over four summers at week-long intensive workshops studying at the Project on Negotiation at Harvard University, learning about the field of mediation. In 1988, she chaired the board of trustees for the non-profit Center for Resolution of Disputes, founded by her close friend, attorney Robert Rack. In the years that followed, Bea went on to mediate well over a thousand family law matters until late 2017, when at the age of eighty-eight, she closed her office door
Bea and Bob went on to establish the Beyond Civility organization in 2013, designed to encourage and model communication between people of different minds
Bea received numerous awards, including several prestigious from the CBA: The John P. Kiley Professionalism Award in 2007, the Themis Award in 2014 and the Mediator of the Year Award in 2020.
In 2019, Larsen published The Third Person in the Room, a collection of essays reflecting on her observations as a mediator of over 25 years. It can be ordered on Amazon.com, or at Nolan Kerr Press.
Bea is survived by her three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Plans for a memorial gathering are underway.
Gifts honoring Bea’s memory can be made to The Cincinnati Freestore Food Bank, the American Civil Liberties Union, or the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati.
In 2018, I was asked by retired attorney Bea Larsen to help edit and publish her book, The Third Person in the Room, a collection of essays about her experience in the work of divorce mediation, as well as observations of a life well lived.
That was the beginning of Nolan Kerr Press. Bea's book was a success, due to her august reputation and her elegant and incisive writing style.
Other authors followed, and Nolan Kerr Press, accidentally or otherwise, became a place for authors over the age of 80 to find their voices, and a path to immortalizing their work.
I have assisted a number of authors in placing their books on Amazon KDP, an inexpensive yet positive way to publish and make their writing a reality.
I owe all of those successes to Bea Larsen, who trusted me with her book, even though I had never worked a day in the publishing business. For her trust and her friendship, I am truly grateful.
About us
Nolan Kerr Consulting began in 1996 as Nolan Kerr Artist Consultants, LTD. Our primary mission then was to provide classical and jazz musicians with professional guidance in image development and marketing in order to build their performance careers. We quickly expanded our clientele to non-profit arts organizations looking for public relations and marketing support.
Over the years, Nolan Kerr has found a niche working with non-profit organizations of all stripes, finding particular reward in working for groups that provide meaningful and positive change within their communities. Most recently we have added independent publishing for new authors, and we enjoy working in particular with those over age 50, who have singularly interesting stories to tell.
Our Goal
Nolan Kerr Consulting provides expert assistance to non-profit organizations, providing the vision, stability and structure needed to identify and achieve desired goals.
Need to re-energize your board of directors? Craft a vision for the future? Build a marketing plan for a specific project? We can help.
And new this year: we've begun helping independent authors self-publish their books.
Clients
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Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters
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City of Montgomery, OH Arts Commission
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The Mercantile Library
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Linden Grove School
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The Blue Ash/Montgomery Symphony
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Chamber Music Cincinnati
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Montgomery (OH) Chamber of Commerce
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St. Barnabas Episcopal Church
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St. Rita School for the Deaf
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Assistance League of Greater Cincinnati
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Bea V. Larsen, Esq.