A. Dean Larsen (1930-2002) was a librarian in Utah.

A. Dean Larsen was born August 23, 1930 in Vineyard, Utah, He was the third of five children, two older brothers and two younger sisters, born to Vera Alice Austin and Ariel Ellis Larsen. Dean attended Lincoln High School in Orem. After graduating from high school he entered Brigham Young University, focusing his study on history and geography. He interrupted his university study after his sophomore year to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon completion of this two year mission, he returned to his studies at BYU and obtained student employment in the University Library. When he graduated from the university with a major in history, the Korean War was under way and he was drafted to serve in the army. After basic and specialized training, he was assigned to the Central Intelligence Corp in Stuttgart, Germany. Dean returned home from his tour of duty with the army in the fall of 1956 and was hired full-time at the BYU library with an agreement that he would be given summers off to pursue a Master of Library Science degree, at the University of Michigan. He completed his degree in August of 1960. The next year he was appointed director for collection development. Dean was largely the architect for the Harold B. Lee Library's tremendous collection growth during the past forty-five years (circa 1950s-1990s). The library's world class collections were Dean's legacy. Even when the library's holdings reached three million volumes, Dean could tell a book dealer if a particular title was in the library's holdings. During Dean's tenure, the library grew from 300,000 books to 3,250,000 books. He died 29 May 2002.