The Reverend Elvin J.?Olson

Friday, February 23, 2007

Oct. 2, 1918 - Feb. 20, 2007

Reverend Elvin J. Olson, 88, died Tuesday (Feb. 20, 2007) at the Hillcrest Nursing Home. 

He was born in Ong on Oct. 2, 1918, to Axel Wilhelm and Agnes Jenning (Anderson) Olson.  He attended school in Ong and graduated from Ong High School in 1935.  He went to Hasting College graduating in 1942. He then went to New York City where he received his Masters of Divinity Degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1946.

 He married Margaret Thorndike on Jan. 14, 1942, in Cambridge. Pastor Olson served his first church in Gothenburg. He then served churches in Nebraska, Kansas and New York before going to Hamilton, Ohio in 1959, to serve the Front Street Presbyterian Church.  He retired from the pulpit in 1974.

He served on the Boards of Trustees of the Hamilton Community Association, the Westover Retirement Home, and the Hamilton Association of Trade and Industry. He was past president of the Hamilton Council of Churches and a member of many organizations including the Jail Committee of Hamilton Ministerial Association, the Youth Committee of the Hamilton YMCA, and the Rotary Club. He also served on the Mercy Hospital Advisory Board, the Public Relation's Committee, the Scholarship Committee and the Nominating Committee of the Advisory Board.

In the Presbytery of Miami, of which the Front Street Church was a member, he served on the Board of Trustees of the Ohio. He also served as a member of the National Missions Board and the Candidates and Enlistment Committee, the Advisory Board of the Westminister Foundation of the Miami University and the area chairman for the 50 Million Fund  and the Financial Fund drive for the Dorothy Love Retirement Home in Sydney.

Upon retirement the couple moved to Santa Barbara Calif., to be near family. The couple moved Cambridge in 2004.  In 2006, Margaret moved to Willow Ridge in McCook.

He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers, Burdette, Elmer, Kermit and Curtis; one sister, Ethel Balnicke; and one son-in-law, Max Besler.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret of McCook; two daughters, Janis Heaphey of Sacramento, Calif., and Signe and husband, Dan Feldman of Dallas, Texas; two sons, Kurt and wife, Marky of Seattle, Wash., and Brian and wife, Edith of Mystic, Conn.; one brother, LaVerne and wife, Dorothy of Kearney; sister-in-law, Virginia Thorndike of Santa Barbara, Calif.; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.  

A memorial service and inurnment will be at a later date.

Memorials may be left in his name at the Lockenour-Jones Mortuary.

Lockenour-Jones Mortuary of Cambridge is in charge of arrangements.