Dave Olerud, 88, died Oct. 3 at home of natural causes. He was born Oct. 17, 1936, in Boyd, Minn., and came to Haines in 1964 to teach school.
Olerud founded the Alaska Bald Eagle Foundation and the family owns Olerud’s Market Center and the Alaska Sport Shop on Main Street, businesses that he and Charlotte, his wife of 61 years, began. Charlotte, son Douglas, daughter Sarah Swinton and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were with him in his final days.
At an Oct.7 memorial service in the Presbyterian Church, Douglas began his eulogy with the story of his father’s life beginning when he was 8-years old: “Imagine being taken in by a couple of bachelor brothers and their housekeeper near the end of World War II. Food and many necessities are rationed… In your new home you are expected to provide food for the household.”
Olerud helped by hunting and fishing.
His mother, Millie (Struss) Olerud, died when he was 2. Olerud stayed on the struggling family farm with his father, Oscar Olerud, and two older brothers before being sent to live with Matt and George Nagel and their housekeeper, Vivian Harris. There was no formal foster care or adoption agreement, rather Douglas said it was a case of “kind-hearted people” taking in a little boy in need. “I believe this experience shaped the rest of Dad’s life,” Douglas said.
Olerud graduated from Boyd High School and the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in education. He taught social studies and physical education and coached football, basketball and baseball in Dawson, Minn., for four years.
He met Charlotte Carlson, who was also a teacher, through mutual friends. They were married on July 24,1964, in Barrett, Minn., her hometown, and took jobs in Haines beginning that fall, figuring they could live anywhere for a year.
They found a home.
Olerud taught social studies, physical education and coached basketball for seven years before opening the Alaska Sport Shop. They started a family, he served as mayor and was on the school board when the old school burned down, and worked hard to have it rebuilt before the next school year. He played city league basketball, loved hunting, and following his own experience, he and Charlotte were unofficial foster parents.
On Oct. 14, 1987, Olerud was paralyzed when a wall he was helping to raise for his dream project, the American Bald Eagle Foundation center, fell on him. He remained committed to the Foundation’s completion and original purpose, which was to help Haines and Klukwan rebound after two sawmills closed by capitalizing on the many bald eagles here when they were on the endangered species list.
Privately, his son said, he also mortgaged their home to buy fishing boats and permits for unemployed loggers and millhands, making loans on a handshake.
“He saw his reflection in all of them. ‘There but for the grace of God I go,’” Douglas said.
In the decades since the accident, Olerud was known as a forceful, passionately opinionated speaker. Giving testimony from his wheelchair at public meetings, he argued on behalf of businesses, working families, sportsmen, fishermen and access for people with disabilities.
Former state Rep. Bill Thomas was a student of Olerud’s at Haines High and played with him on a championship city league basketball team.
He said during his time in office, “Dave never pushed me about politics, it was more like, ‘Hey Bill, gotta minute? I have an idea.’ With Dave Olerud it was never a minute,” Thomas said. “Dave was committed to Haines. He stayed after the accident. He stayed here when things got slow. If this community had more people like Dave, we’d be in stellar shape,” he said.
Olerud rarely missed youth and adult basketball games and loved watching his children and grandchildren compete.
He founded the Dick Hotch Memorial Basketball Tournament and in his later years announced both school and tournament games. He was an adopted Tlingit. He and Charlotte enjoyed arts events at the Chilkat Center and were inseparable.
“Many have told me that they admired my dad’s strength and perseverance after his accident. His pales in comparison to Mom’s,” Douglas said, echoing the sentiments of many.
Douglas and his sister, Sarah, have also coached, served on the school board and assembly, and manage the family businesses. “We inherited his love of Haines,” Douglas said.
They will miss his lighter side, like the rubber-band fights in the aisles of the store and his surprise Easter cakes that could be made from “Bondo, balloons, jelly beans…you never knew what you were getting until you started cutting,” Douglas said.
Dave Olerud was preceded in death by his parents, Matt and George Nagel, Vivian Harris, and his brothers Roger, Harlan and Dennis.
He is survived by wife, Charlotte; children Sarah (Ralph) Swinton and Douglas Olerud; grandchildren Tyler (Lynzee), Justin (Courtney), Kayley (fiancé Andrew) and Dylan (Dakota); great-grandchildren Stella, Charlotte and Henry, and many nieces and nephews.
Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Haines at P.O. Box 1034 or the Haines Volunteer Fire Department ambulance crew fund at P.O. Box 849.