Richard (Dick) Lee Olson

Richard (Dick) Lee Olson passed away on Sunday, May 7, 2023, at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, at the age of 79, with his wife Barb at his side. On October 24, 1943, Nels Peter and Viola Evelyn Olson, welcomed, a son in Minneapolis, MN, joining their 10-year-old daughter Lynnette. At the end of WWII, the family moved to Grand Rapids MN, where Dick attended kindergarten and 1st grade. While attending school he watched smoke rise from his father’s burning hardware store a block away through his grade school window. Getting the opportunity to start anew, the family moved to Wisconsin Dells, where Dick worked part time at his father’s new Coast to Coast hardware store, taking care of stock, waiting on customers, making keys for the Wisconsin Dells motels, and had the hard task of advertising and demonstrating the newest bicycles throughout the streets of Wisconsin Dells. After graduating from high school, he attended Madison Area Technical College. Dick went on to work at ABS and then Oscar Mayer, where he applied his accounting and computer science background, later becoming a computer programing manager. Dick enjoyed a large circle of friends while working at Oscar Mayer/Kraft Foods in addition to boating, biking, hiking, gardening, hunting, fishing and avid cribbage player. Dick was an active member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Portage WI, taking on the responsibility of creating a beautiful prayer and memorial garden used for meditation and reflection. Dick was a loving husband and father. He enjoyed life, travel, new adventures and surrounded himself with many lifelong friends and feline companions. Dick is survived by his wife Barb Olson Rothwell; children, Scott (Laurie) Olson, Kim (Rick) White, Gary Olson, Brian (Shannon) Olson, Jeff (Jodie) Olson, Lani (Anthony) Jackson; step-children Darcy (Kevin) Stoddard, Randy Swan, Stephanie (Dave) Bentzen, Chris (Kate) Larsh, twenty two grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren; sister Lynn (Bill) Anderson; cousins Roger (Ann) Will, Mona Will and Tom (Sharon) Giles; in addition to nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, wife Darlene, cousin Donald (husband of Mona) Will, Vic Whitehorse, and stepdaughter Jennifer Larsh. We would like to send a special thank you to Agrace Hospice staff for their kindness, support and caregiving and ask that donations be made to Agrace Hospice and or Bethlehem Lutheran Church in his honor. Visitation and funeral will take place at his home church, Bethlehem Lutheran, W8267 Hwy33, Portage, WI on May 18th, 2023; visitation will take place from 10-11am, and funeral will be held at 11am. Funeral arrangement by Kratz Funeral Home in Portage WI.

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