Oscar William Olsen

OLSEN, Mr.

Oscar "Ole"

Muskegon

The "Greatest Generation" lost another when Oscar "Ole" William Olsen passed away peacefully with family at his side on March 4, 2025, a few days shy of his hundredth birthday. The grandson of Norwegian and Danish immigrants who worked Muskegon's lumber mills and helped to build the young city, Ole was born March 19, 1925, to Oscar Melvin Olsen and Agnes Mason Olsen. He is survived by his loving wife of over 74 years, Dolores "Kappy" Hosmer Olsen.

Ole lost his mother at age seven, but a caring father and four older siblings, along with aunts, raised him; he showed them staunch devotion later on. Siblings Paul (Elaine), Robert, Margaret Olsen Crawford (Charles), and Katherine Olsen Saunders Zagers (John) predeceased him. He was among the youngest of dozens of cousins.

As a teenager Ole walked from his Nims neighborhood to his earliest jobs-flipping burgers at the sawdust-floored Hicks Hamburgs; handling huge rolls of newsprint at the Mart dock for The Chronicle; maintaining the Mart's ice rink with his chums, the neighborhood "rink rats;" and working as a cabin boy on the SS Milwaukee Clipper. In 1941, Ole was hanging out with friends at a Pinchtown gas station (now Lakeside Cafe) when the radio blared news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. So at 16 he also began to work for the war effort, near the Mart, repeatedly loading and flipping over 1,250 cases of canned condensed milk inside freight cars on the tracks beside the Amazon.

Not long after, on his eighteenth birthday, he was assigned to the Navy Armed Guard. Ole's father had advised him to choose the Navy, where one would "always have a bed--and clean sheets." And he did. He served on the gun crews of four Liberty ships-hastily fabricated cargo vessels (2,700 of them) capable of hauling 7,000 tons, whose slow speed made them easy targets of enemy attacks. But they played critical transport roles in the war effort, with Roosevelt declaring they would be instrumental in saving Europe's liberty; allies mattered. Of his duties in the Atlantic and Pacific, his most fateful assignment was the SS Solomon Juneau, which was torpedoed in the English channel by a German seehund in April 1945. For the next eighty years he carried memories of his two closest, teenaged friends, the only shipmates lost in that attack-- McClory and Robinette. He finally would speak of the war fifty years afterwards when with his wife he attended his unit's reunions. Those eventually ended; of the Juneau's sailors, he was the last survivor.

Home from the war, Ole took a job at Standard Oil's Lakeshore Drive tank farm on Muskegon Lake where timbers from his grandfathers' lumber mills lurked, submerged. That job lasted almost forty years. Requiring physical labor outdoors year round, that job, and habits of moderation, probably contributed to his long, healthy life. His work ethic was impeccable.

One day in 1950, friends enticed him on a blind date for their poker game with a beautiful young woman from Ravenna who was working at Shaw Box. She lost all her wagers that night, but Ole earned a priceless bride with whom he spent over 74 years. A friend of hers did warn her to think twice about marrying Ole, for he had suffered a prolonged case of rheumatic fever while still in the Navy and might not live long.

Ole and Dolores shared a rich and active life together, and she single mindedly dedicated herself to his care in his final years. They are parents of Janet Olsen (Alden "Coh" Rohen), and Judi Teston (Tony), as well as a beloved son, James "Jim" Olsen, who predeceased them.

Their home in Lakeside hosted backyard ice rinks which Ole, who had played hockey and baseball as a youth (a lifelong sports fan -- go Tigers, Wolverines, and Lions), diligently maintained after working outdoors all day. He pursued gardening, bowling leagues, hunting, square dancing ("two left feet," according to Dolores), casino gambling, and attending his grandchildren's sports events. He enthusiastically fished The Big Lake -- smaller ones too. Like all Michiganders he could pleasantly muse with the best of them on the weather outlook and fishing prospects. With Ole behind the wheel, and maps in Dolores' lap, the family traveled via camper to points known and unknown and seemed to hit every picnic table in the state.

With cousin Jack Wiersma he built a retirement home for himself and Dolores. They joined the Vikings Linne' Lodge 57 where he tended bar and they cherished many dear friends. Ole volunteered at the Frauenthal Theater for many years and took pride in charter membership in the Muskegon Recreation Club and his contributions to Muskegon Men Who Care. Having carefully saved as only the children of The Great Depression could, Ole and Dolores travelled the world, and he continued a program of exercise involving a rower, cycle, and Nordic skier. He used a Deskcycle and resistance bands into his hundredth year, for he determined to live longer than all of his ancestors, which he did with grit and will. His long life encompassed a broad sweep of history, and his detailed memories of early twentieth century Muskegon remained remarkably intact.

Clock Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. A Celebration of Life at the Vikings Lodge will be held at a later date. The family requests memorials to Harbor Hospice Poppen Residence and expresses heartfelt thanks to its caregivers as well as to home caregivers Crystal Thomas, Guvonna Norris, and others. Ole unfailingly told his caregivers thank you--and usually please-- except for his most modern caregiver, Alexa. In his late nineties he masterfully commanded her to play much-loved musical standards from the 1930's into the '60's, preferably at volume 9, as well as to bring him chocolate.

Ole was a beloved husband and father, an always-friendly neighbor, a dedicated son, brother, nephew, and uncle. Five grandchildren cherish his memory: Clay Hamlin (Brittany), Ashley Keller (Alec), Kelsey Hubbard (Bill), Zack Teston (Maria), and Elizabeth Collins (Calvin). He leaves eight great-grandchildren: Kate, Jeremy, Avaya, Alden, James, Hunter, Tucker, and Quinn, and one great-great-grandson. Ole held his nieces and nephews dear, and he especially valued "adopted" nephew Wayne Hosmer (Dalene). Nieces Carolyn Reinertson (Marvin) and Jean Crawford were his guardian angels. Ole would want to be remembered quite simply as optimistic, ever humble, and kind -- one who reminded his grandchildren that "it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."