Southern New Hampshire University

Larkin served as dean of students and was a Vice-President of Student Affairs when he retired in 2004, after 35 years of service to New Hampshire College and then, SNHU.  Included in his duties was oversight of the Athletic Department, and SNHU developed into one the premier Division II programs in the nation under his guidance, claiming numerous ECAC and NCAA regional championships, including the 1989 NCAA National Championship in men's soccer. He was also instrumental in SNHU's move from the now-defunct New England Collegiate Conference to the Northeast-10 Conference, considered by many to be the premiere Division II league in the country.  Larkin also established a strict policy that every student-athlete must maintain a 2.0 cumulative grade point average in order to be eligible to participate in a varsity sport at SNHU, which is higher than the NCAA standard and is based on the fact that the entire student body at the university is required to earn a cumulative GPA of 2.0 in order to graduate. This policy paid off in the summer of 2001 when SNHU earned the inaugural USA Today/NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Award in recognition of high graduation rates among its student-athletes. For his efforts, the turf field on campus, Dr. George Larkin Field, is named in his honor.  He is also a 1959 graduate of Boston College, where he was a member of the football team and served as team captain his senior year.   He passed away in February 2022.