Larry Hostetler said he will be leaving the Jefferson County Salvation Army in a good place when he retires at the end of the month.
Hostetler, 73, of Imperial has been the Jefferson County Salvation Army director for nearly four years. During that time, he said the part-time staff increased from two to seven members, the Board of Directors has become better organized with committees focusing on various operations and the organization has expanded its services and community outreach throughout the county.
“My wife (Dovi) taught me don’t give responsibility without authority,” he said. “I have given authority very freely to people who have taken and run with it. That is why I feel I can leave with my head held high and not worry.”
Hostetler’s final day will be June 30. He became the Jefferson County Salvation Army director in September 2022 after serving as the senior director of donor relations for the Salvation Army in the St. Louis area.
“(Hostetler) has worked a lot with the Salvation Army and other nonprofits,” said the Rev. Michael Lydon, the vicar for the Archdiocese Southern Vicariate and member of the Jefferson County Salvation Army board.
“He knows the nonprofit world. He knows what is important. He has great people skills. He can be strategic. He is a real gift to be in this position. They will have a hard time finding someone as talented as him in terms of running the things as a nonprofit, handling staff and volunteers, and encouraging other people to come forward.”
Hostetler said the next director may be named Tuesday, after the Leader’s deadline. He said he provided a list of 30-day, 60-day and 90-day goals for the next director based on his replacement currently living in Jefferson County.
“I was told to provide goals for someone who is from Jefferson County,” Hostetler said on June 18. “I expected next Tuesday, when there is a going away party for me, that they will announce it at that time. That would give a week for me to have some conversations with (the next director).”
Hostetler said his salary as director was about $26,000. He said he has prepared a 23-page document outlining the operation at the Jefferson County Salvation Army, 3740 Telegraph Road, just outside of Arnold city limits.
“It describes for instance how the board is organized and what different committees do,” he said. “In the document, I tried to let the next director know who is in what role and how they function.”
Born into Salvation Army
Hostetler said his family’s connection to the Salvation Army goes back 100 years.
He said in 1926, when his late father, Vernon, was 5 years old the family’s home in Hutchinson, Kan., was destroyed by a fire.
“(Vernon) woke up one night, and his father was carrying him out of the house,” Hostetler said. “He set him down on the lawn under a tree in Hutchinson, Kan. My father woke up and saw the house was on fire. He thought that was pretty and went back to sleep. The next day, his father gathered the family together and said we are blessed we all got out safely. Everything was lost in the fire. We are staying with my brother and his family. You have to know all of your Christmas presents were burned up. We will have food and a roof over our heads, but it will be a slim Christmas this year. Several days later, the Salvation Army showed up with food and toys.
“Ever since, I have had family members involved in the Salvation Army.”
Hostetler said his late mother, Mildred, grew up with her parents working for the Salvation Army in the Tower Grove area of St. Louis. He said both of his parents were Salvation Army officers in Cincinnati, where he grew up.
“My first job was at 11; I rang bells,” he said. “If you rang bells for more than four hours, they gave you money for lunch or dinner. That was my first job. As a teenager, I worked at a Salvation Army summer camp.”
After college, Hostetler said he became a high school band teacher at a school near Lexington, Ky.. He said he decided teaching band was not for him after his first four years.
“A friend of mine had moved to Chicago,” he said. “Salvation Army has a long tradition of brass bands. I was a music major. He said if you try out and get a position, they will find you a job. I tried out, passed the audition, and they found me a job working in fundraising in Chicago.”
Hostetler said he started working for the Salvation Army in Chicago in 1981.
He said he has worked for the organization off and on for 22 of the last 45 years. He said he also worked for other nonprofits, such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Sierra Vista Child and Family Services and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
“People look at my resume when I apply for an interview, and they say, ‘It looks like you went back and forth with the Salvation Army,’” Hostetler said. “I say I work for the Salvation Army and then I get offered real money elsewhere that I can’t turn down. When that ends, I return to the Salvation Army because I love the mission. It has such a pure mission and process. It is a great organization.”
Hostetler said he was going to retire before being named the director at the Jefferson County Salvation Army.
“As I started that process, I heard from a lot of people who said figure out what you are going to do,” he said. “I had been in touch with and got to know some of the major donors to the Arnold operation. I had attended board meetings and got to know the operation. I thought they were without a director and looking to fill it. I thought I could do that. I put my name forward, and they hired me to do it.”
Hostetler said he is proud of the staff at the Jefferson County Salvation Army. He said everyone is a part-time employee, and he credits their work for expanding the services and reach of the Salvation Army throughout the county.
“Since I have been here, it is not what I have accomplished, but I have had the wisdom to encourage and enable others to accomplish things,” he said. “It is a great team that works together. The staff has done a lot of stuff to make things happen. I have been wise enough to get out of the way.”
Hostetler said he also is proud of how the board has been reshaped since he arrived, and he credits the board members for working with him.
“One thing I got into place with the help of board members is a committee structure,” he said. “We have a finance committee keeping track of how we are doing and how we can do better. We have a fundraising committee. We have a program committee. We have a community relations committee that has just formed. Board members are actively involved in the operation of the Salvation Army.”
Hostetler said through staff’s and board members’ efforts the number of Salvation Army bell ringers has tripled, participation in the annual golf tournament has risen and more organizations use the Salvation Army’s building, such as the James II Project that provides free lunches there on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“This has become a more active building,” he said.
Hostetler said he and Dovi plan to travel more after he retires, and they will be able to spend more time with their children, Bailey Hostetler-Toralez and Joe Hostetler, and their grandson.
“We will get to do more things with them,” he said.
Hostetler said he will miss the fulfillment of working for the Salvation Army, such as when a man who is homeless recently started a job thanks to the organization and a woman who broke down in tears just from the perspective of being able to receive support.
“I will miss having responsibility for what happens here and having that kind of impact on an individual who comes in hopeless and leaves with appreciation,” he said.