Obituary of Harold Lloyd Olson

Harold Lloyd Olson passed away on, March 14, 2022, at the age of 94, in the caring hands of so many.  Dad was overcome with dementia for the past three years and died of acute kidney failure. Hal was comforted in his last few days with family members and the wonderful staff at the Masonic Nursing Home and Hospice care givers by his side.

Hal was born in 1928 and raised on a farmer in Wisconsin. Hal came from an era of farming with horses and doing everything for himself.  Dad was a crack shot with a 22 rifle. During the depression when ammunition was expensive, his Dad, use to tell him, “you shoot the squirrel, you are a better shot”.  The squirrel was dinner.

Dad married Luana and they escaped from Wisconsin and moved to the Scandinavian Rivera town of Duluth.  Hal was a visionary.  He saw the future in technology and started at US Steel as a computer key punch operator.  Honeywell offered Dad the opportunity to get in computers big time, enough to pry them out of Duluth and they moved to South Minneapolis.  They pick a fabulous neighborhood, lakes, parks, creek, ice rink, sailing.  Dad liked his Vikings, an initial ticket season ticket holder.  He was a fantastic gardener. It seemed he could grow pretty much anything he planted.  Dad enjoyed fishing both on water and ice. Hal and Luana took the boys on summer road trips all over the US and Canada pulling along one of two pop-up tent trailers.  After Hal retired, they became winter Texans from January through March on the Rio Grande Valley. 

Harold was preceded in death by his parents David and Alvina and by his brothers Curtis and LaVerne Olson, sister LaVonne and wife of sixty years Luana.  He is survived by his sons David and Timothy, daughter-laws Barb and Patty, granddaughters Jessica and Elita, and sister Mary Lou.

A visitation is planned for Thursday, April 7, 12:30 pm.  The visitation will be at the Masonic Home Chapel 11501 Masonic Home Dr, Bloomington, MN 55437. All are invited to attend. The memorial service will follow immediately at 1 pm.

People wishing to honor Hal’s lifelong commitment to family and community can make donations to the Masonic Home or Ukraine Refugee Fund.

We will all miss Hal greatly, but the last three years have been hard since losing his memory to dementia.  He has wanted to move on for the past few years and now the time has come.