St. Cloud’s Southside Park Renamed to Honor Larry Haws

ST. CLOUD -- Southside Park is being renamed after a longtime St. Cloud public servant, Larry Haws.

Mayor Dave Kleis made the announcement Wednesday in front of a crowd of city officials and the Haws family.

Faith Haws is Larry's wife, she says Larry always had a goal for parks in St. Cloud.

"The city of St. Cloud has a lot of parks [and Larry] wanted them in areas where there's high population of kids and kids could hop on their bikes and come down and use the parks."

Haw's daughter, Kelly Haws says the city picked the perfect park to honor her father's legacy.

"Everybody should be included and have positive things to do, especially the youth in our community and this is a perfect park to pick if you're going to name a park after him because it incorporates everything he believed in."

Larry Haws was St. Cloud’s Park Director for 27 years. He worked for the city from 1969 to 2002. In 2005, he won a special election to replace State Representative Joe Opatz and served at the Legislature until 2010.

Larry Haws died in 2012 at the age of 72 after battling brain cancer.