Dr. Hilding "Ollie" Olson, Retired Mechanical Engineering Faculty Member, Dies
Former CSU faculty member Dr. Hilding Gunnar Olson, known affectionately by his friends as "Ollie", died on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005, at the age of 83.
Ollie was born on Mary 4, 1922, in Philadelphia, the third son of Swedish immigrants, John August and Hedwig Christina Tropp Olson. He graduated from high school in Pitman, N.J., in 1939. In 1942, he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. During the Second World War, Hilding Olson received his commission as a deck-engineering officer in the U.S. Navy, later earning his wings as a naval aviator, trained for land and sea multi-engine airplanes. After the war, Hilding worked for several years as a professional engineer in the metals industry and, later, he constructed homes in Plymouth, Mich. Ollie entered graduate school at the University of Michigan in 1958, specializing in nuclear engineering. While Ollie was a graduate student, he supervised the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory, a facility devoted to the peaceful use of the atom.
After receiving his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering in 1966, Dr. Olson joined the faculty of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. In 1967, he served as acting head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, later teaching courses in nuclear engineering and health physics. With another researcher and their graduate students, Dr. Olson pioneered the mathematical description and experimental verification of radioactive radon's emanation from the earth. He trained the staff and served on the safety board of the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Plant near Denver, Colo.
Dr. Olson was a consultant and licensing examiner for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 1982, he chaired a national committee for the commission that established the educational backgrounds and experience requirements for the various professional and technical disciplines that staff America's nuclear power reactors.
Dr. Olson retired from professional engineering in 1994, with his last consulting project being the development of an advanced nuclear reactor concept at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. In his retirement, Ollie continued to savor gardening, weightlifting and traveling. In his last eight years of life, Ollie became an accomplished oil painter of landscapes and wildlife. Dr. Olson enthusiastically promoted energy conservation and recycling throughout his life. As a retiree, Ollie continued to be an avid reader, always eager to share jokes, financial analysis and political views with friends.
Dr. Olson is survived in San Angelo by his wife and best friend, Carolyn Olson (nee Anderson) and seven children. Linnea Duff and her husband, David, live in Ipswich, Mass. John Olson lives in Broomfield, Colo. Kristen "Bink" Owsley and her husband, Greg, live in Fort Collins, Colo. Laura Pastor and her husband, Andy, live in Austin, Texas. Diana Surley and her husband, John, live in Waco, Texas. Daniel Olson and his wife, Annika, live in Anchorage, Alaska. Rosalie Olson lives in Boulder, Colo. Ollie is also survived by 10 grandchildren, Jemesii Kaan, August Kaan, Peter Duff, Jacquelynne Olson De Leon, Shannon Olson, Mesa Owsley, Zola Owsley, Max Pastor, and twins, Eli and Hale Pastor.
Dr. Olson was a member of Glenn Meadows Baptist Church, where his memorial service was held on Monday, Nov. 28, 2005.