Aral Dean Larsen was born August 23, 1930, in Vineyard, Utah, to Vera Alice Austin and Ariel Ellis Larsen. He attended Lincoln High School in Orem where he was president of Future Farmers of America (FFA) and a student assistant for the school library. After graduating from high school, he entered Brigham Young University (BYU), focusing his study on history and geography. After serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 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. Serving in Germany, he had extensive opportunities to travel throughout Europe, imbuing him with an appreciation for the arts, museums, libraries, book shops, rare book dealers, etc. 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. In 1958, he married Jean Maycock and they had four children. He completed his master's in library science in 1960. The next year he was appointed Director for Collection Development, in which position he acted until his retirement in 1993. Dean was largely the architect for the Harold B. Lee Library's collection growth during the years from 1960 to 1990. Due to his love of rare books, he also contributed significantly to the development of Brigham Young University's special collections. The A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference was created to honor him and is held every year. Dean died on May 29, 2002.