Brent W. Olsen's Obituary
BRENT WALTHER OLSEN
Jan. 18, 1943 –May 1, 2013
Born in the “Blizzard of ’43,” Brent Olsen lived the early years of his childhood in a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, a small town in the foothills of Washington state’s Cascade Mountains. Despite the fact that he contracted almost every “childhood” disease, he had a happy childhood riding his bike all over town, frequently visiting nearby Mount Rainier National Park, and playing outside with neighborhood children.
Brent’s dad worked at Boeing Aircraft in Renton and the Naval Shipyards in Bremerton during World War II, so he was exempt from military service. After the war, he opened a watch repair and jewelry shop (the Gem Nook) in Enumclaw. The family moved to a two-bedroom house when Brent was 8 years old.
In the early 1950s, Brent’s dad accepted a position as teacher of watch and clock repair at Bates Technical School in Tacoma. Having grown tired of the commute, the family moved to Tacoma in 1955. They rented a house on North 25th Street while their new house was being built a few blocks away, on North 30th Street.
Brent attended Mason Junior High School. He joined the mixed chorus at the school, and continued to develop his facility for choral singing, which began when he joined their church’s junior choir when he was 8.
Brent went to Tacoma’s Woodrow Wilson High School, graduating in 1961. He continued with his singing as a member of the Wilson Concert Choir and Swing Choir, and served as president of the choir.
It was at this time that Brent took up mountain climbing. He took classes at the Tacoma Mountaineers Club and also served as a climbing instructor. He climbed Mount St. Helens and Mount Baker, and he reached high camp on Mount Rainier, but had to abort his last summit attempt when he suffered anoxia at an altitude of 11,500 feet. He maintained a love of the outdoors and wilderness for the rest of his life, taking up backpacking, bicycle touring and skiing as a young man.
Brent entered Pacific Lutheran University with honors in 1961 due to his high grade point average (3.5) in high school. He joined the Choir of the West at PLU and toured Europe for two months with the choir in the summer of 1963. He worked part time and attended school part time in his junior year.
It was then that he consummated his love affair with the MGA sports car. He bought a 1959 roadster in the summer of 1964, ultimately trading up to a 1961 model in 1966. Over the years Brent showed his car at regional and national car shows. He also was a member of the North American MGA Register, and organized NAMGAR’s national car show that was held in Bellevue, Wash., in 1987. In 1983 he acquired a second collector car – a 1982 Triumph TR8 – one of the last 43 built before production stopped in the fall of 1981.
In the summer of 1965, Brent was selected as a summer intern at the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. He had declared himself as a communications major the previous year. Brent was the only candidate selected from west of the Mississippi River.
Brent graduated from PLU in 1966, at the peak of the Viet Nam war. Although strongly opposed to the war, Brent enlisted for three years in the U.S. Army to avoid the negative consequences of waiting to be selected by the draft and to improve his chances of getting training of his choice and, consequently, better assignments. After eight weeks of basic combat training at Fort Polk, La., in July and August 1966, he was sent to Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, where he studied basic military journalism.
After a short stint as an information specialist at Fort Lewis, Wash., he shipped to Korea, where he served as a broadcast specialist at 2nd Division Headquarters near the DMZ for six months. He spent the last six months of his one-year tour with the American Forces Korea Network, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service station in Seoul, as a disc jockey and television newscaster. Brent’s last year of duty was as a broadcast specialist at 6th Army Headquarters in Presidio, San Francisco. He was honorably discharged in June 1969.
For the next couple of years, he lived in Tacoma with his parents while he looked for work. During that period, he worked as a part-time newscaster and freelance reporter for two Seattle radio stations (KVI and KING). In September of 1971, he took a job as a welfare eligibility examiner with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Capitol Hill Office in Seattle. He then moved to an apartment in Seattle.
In the office where he worked, he met the woman who would become his wife. Reba Sue Van Andel and Brent were married in February 1974. They remained in Seattle while Brent continued working for DSHS in various capacities, including a couple of years as a social caseworker. In November of 1976, they had their first child, Sanna Liv.
Meanwhile, Brent was continuing his involvement with choral singing. He had joined Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral choir when he returned from the Army. Now that he was living in Seattle, he also joined the all-male Compline Choir at St. Mark’s. He served many years as president of this elite group, and traveled to Europe with them twice on concert tours – to Russia and Scandinavia in 1997, and England in 2000.
In 1979, Brent accepted a position as public information officer for the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia. He was, among other things, the associate editor of the agency’s statewide newsletter.
Meanwhile, the Olsens bought a house in Parkland, Wash. This made Brent’s commute much easier.
In September 1984, Brent took a promotion to public information officer with the District 1 office of the Washington State Department of Transportation. The major project that was active at the time was the completion of I-90 between Seattle and Bellevue.
On March 1, 1985, Brent and Reba had their second child, Jared Walther. In August of 1986, the four Olsens moved to a new home a couple of miles from their first house. The new house was situated on almost an acre of land with a pond in the back yard. More than twice as big as their previous house, it was located next to a wetland, and their property was designated as a “Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary” by the Washington State Department of Wildlife.
Brent continued to enjoy his singing. He joined the Seattle Symphony Chorale, and he also became a member of PLU’s Choral Union (community chorus) with which he made a concert tour of Europe in 2002. He also sang with the Tacoma Symphony Chorus.
In 1991, Brent was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. With judicious use of medication he was able to remain active for many years, and he continued to work until 2000, when he was 57. In his retirement years he continued to sing and keep busy volunteering with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, the LeMay Automobile Museum, and KPLU-FM, Pacific Lutheran University’s jazz station. And, he was delighted with having spent precious time with his grandson, Oshin, who was born in July 2012.
Following the service, a reception with food, beverage, photos and more memories will be held for attendees in the Oak Room at the Life Celebration Center at Mountain View.
Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home.
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