Stanley David OLSEN

OLSEN, SCHMIDT, WHITE, PETERS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/30/2008 at 09:37:01

August 1, 2008
Fort Dodge Messenger, IA

ROWAN - Stan Olsen, age 61, of Rowan died Tuesday, July 29, 2008, at the Mercy Medical Center of North Iowa in Mason City. Funeral services for Stanley David Olsen will be held on Saturday, August 2, 2008, at the United Methodist Church in Belmond, Iowa at 10:30 a.m. with Pastor Mark Pluff and Pastor Mike Druhl officiating. Burial will be held at the Graceland Cemetery in Rowan, Iowa with military rites provided by the Rowan American Legion, Unit 159. Visitation will be on Friday, August 1, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Dugger Funeral Home, 111 Luick's Lane South, Belmond, Iowa, and one hour prior to the services at the church on Saturday morning.

Stanley David, the son of Harold and Ina (Schmidt) Olsen was born August 29, 1946, in Belmond, Iowa. He grew up in Belmond, graduating from Belmond High School in 1964. He attended Mankato Business School, graduating from their three-year program in two years. Stan was drafted into the Army in 1967. He and Peggy White were married at St. John's Catholic Church in Clarion in 1970. Stan worked as an accountant for a number of firms including Central Soya and Kiefer Built before he began his own accounting firm in 1974. He was a very community-minded individual, serving on the ambulance department as well as the fire department in Rowan. He was also a member of the American Legion in Rowan and the King Solomon Lodge, #210 in Belmond. Stan took an active role as a member of the Belmond-Klemme School Board for the last three years. He was also an avid sportsman, enjoying his duck hunting and trapping. Collecting antiques and attending auctions were hobbies Stan thoroughly enjoyed. His family and grandchildren were his pride and joy.

Stan is survived by his wife, Peg; daughter, Stephanie (Matt) Peters of Colfax; son, Dan (Tammie) of Central Asia; grandchildren Ellie, Allison, and Sarah Peters and Hannah Olsen; brothers Dr. Steven (Pam) Olsen of Belmond, and Karl (Marilyn) Olsen of Clarion; numerous nieces and nephews. Preceding Stan in death are his parents and an infant son, David.

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Mason City Globe Gazette
7/30/2008

Stan Olsen
ROWAN - Stan Olsen, 61, of Rowan, died Tuesday (July 29, 2008) at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa in Mason City. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Dugger Funeral Home in Belmond.

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Rowan's Stan Olsen is dead at age 61
By PEGGY SENZARINO, peggy.senzarino@globegazette.com

ROWAN — Stan Olsen is being remembered today as a man of his word — often a controversial one.

Olsen, 61, a member of the Belmond-Klemme School Board, died Tuesday at Mercy Medical Center- North Iowa after suffering a massive stroke last week.

“He knew what he was talking about. You never had to doubt Stan,” said Tom Groom, former mayor of Rowan and a longtime friend of Olsen.

“He was controversial because he didn’t always take the easy road. But you always knew where you stood with Stan — and you always knew where he stood.”

Olsen was self-employed in tax planning and income tax preparation.

In a December 2005 interview, he talked about why he decided to seek a School Board seat.

“Practically everyone I have talked to in recent years was not happy with the way the school has been managed. You can sit around and complain about it or you can do something about it,” he said.

Olsen believed government that governs least governs best.

“That is because basically all government is bureaucracy and bureaucracies, when faced with a problem, tend to form committees and look at the situation rather than getting around to solving it,” he said.

“As far as education goes, public education is the most costly and least efficient of all the ways that there are to educate.”

At times, his outspokenness led to public criticism.

In October 2005, a Belmond woman asked Olsen to resign, saying he violated the Iowa Association of School Board’s code of ethics by making comments about fellow board members, the school district and the local community.

Olsen refused to resign and nothing more came of it.

He was a prolific writer of letters to the editor in the Globe Gazette.

“It comes with the territory,” he said about the controversy he sometimes generated. “It has almost always been my history that people who agree with my point of view call me and those who oppose my point of view write their own letters.”

Funeral arrangements are pending at Dugger Funeral Home in Belmond.