Avis de décès de John Olsen

OLSEN, John Norman "Norm"With much sadness and immense gratitude for a long life well lived, we announce that Norm, Dad, Papa, JNO died peacefully at home on June 20, 2015 in his 92nd year.Norm was a wonderful husband and family man, a devoted father and mentor to his five children, an adoring, proud grandfather and great-grandfather who happily sat on the floor for hours playing with the grandkids and lovingly sat through countless recitals and sporting events.Granddaughters: "He approached every task with quiet resolve and gentle humour. He was also kind, brilliant and a little bit mischievous. He saw each day of his life as an opportunity for another adventure - even as cancer spread through his body he endeavoured to truly, deeply and fiercely live until the day he died." "The man with the most patience of anyone…who taught me to strive for success while staying humble and putting family first."In addition to his family, he loved boating. From his first boat, a 16 foot wooden runabout purchased in 1961 to his final boat the 41'' trawler Hans Matthias, he loved being on the ocean or the many lakes of BC. The family holiday was three weeks at Jade Bay on Kalamalka Lake, where he would take countless children and adults water skiing all day long. He loved to travel, read, winters in Palm Desert, and cruises. He snow skied into his 80''s even taking a snowboard lesson at age 80 to experience what his grandkids were learning on the slopes.In July 1948, Norm married Barbara Knowles, a nurse from VGH he had met through a friend. Five children were welcomed over the next 11 years forming a very happy family. Sadly in 1968 Barbara contracted cancer and despite the best efforts of the doctors, she died in April 1969. Later that year he was introduced to Norma London and they were married in June 1970. Norm would pass away on their 45th wedding anniversary.This remarkable man made a remarkable entry into the world. Norm was born in the family home on Guelph Street in Vancouver''s Mount Pleasant on December 16, 1923. A neighbour attending at his birth declared him stillborn and wrapped him in a newspaper and put him under his mother''s bed. The doctor arrived soon after and revived the baby and so began his journey. The youngest of four children, his older sisters and brother happily spoiled him. The Great Depression took its toll on the family. His father, a hardworking immigrant Norwegian carpenter and construction foreman, was unemployed for five years, and refused to take any kind of government assistance, relying on savings and odd jobs until the economy got back on its feet. Education was encouraged in the Olsen home as the Depression showed that those with a formal education were better off. Norm had high marks, in the top 5% of his class, when he graduated from King Edward High School and entered the University of British Columbia to study Engineering at age 16, with the intention of becoming an engineering teacher.Norm Olsen always had a strong work ethic. He was a newspaper delivery boy, worked the green chain at Canadian White Pine, and built boilers for Victory ships but his favourite job was as an "ice man" for Garvin Ice and Fuel . It was a job he talked about throughout the rest of his life, a physically demanding job to prove his strength as he delivered two to three tons of ice a day, six days a week. His route covered all the social strata of Vancouver at the time from the wealthy to the poor, from gambling dens to families and the elderly. He learned the value of service and a lot about human nature.Norm graduated from UBC in 1946. The B.C. government had just formed the B.C. Power Commission, and along with seven other graduate engineers, Norm began his training to become a district manager in an organization with the goal of providing electrical power at affordable rates throughout the province. Norm remained passionate about this goal throughout his entire career! Norm and fellow trainee Donn Wales were dispatched to Williams Lake for field training. They lived in an old army tent located next to railway tracks outside the Williams Lake diesel power house. The tent was heated by an oil stove made from a small oil drum. His job was to tend the power house, carefully monitoring power demand to ensure there were no blackouts, as well as work as a lineman installing new electrical service on the top of 30 to 40 foot poles.His first permanent posting as a district manager was the Village of Alert Bay where he was a lineman/electrician, meter reader, and bill collector by day and power house operator from four to midnight, seven days per week. Disappointed that it was the smallest posting in the new Power Commission, he was determined that Head Office in Victoria would know who the manager of Alert Bay was. A rapid succession of postings took him to Nanaimo, the Alberni Valley, Campbell River and finally the Comox Valley where he met his lifelong friend Bob McPhee. The thread that runs through his life from the earliest days is community service. With Bob, Norm was involved in the local Courtenay community, becoming Chairman of the local Board of Trade. They started a new Kiwanis Club, a Toastmasters Club and Norm even became District Commissioner of the Boy Scouts. While managing the Comox District, he established an open door policy for customers. He positioned his office at the front of the building for easy access for customers wanting to speak with the manager. He followed this open door policy throughout his career, even later as President of BC Hydro; unless he was having a meeting, his door was always open and he always answered his own phone. With staff he maintained "you don''t write a memo when you can go speak to the person".Through a series of promotions after creation of BC Hydro from a merged BCPC and BC Electric Company, Norm rose to become G.M. in 1974, then Hydro''s President, a position he would hold until 1986.BC Hydro was much more than an electric utility with 10,000 employees at its peak. In addition to delivering on the promise of low electricity rates, it efficiently ran the Vancouver regional transit system and a railway, started the SeaBus, distributed natural gas, and had a world-renowned engineering division.During Norm''s time as President, BC Hydro started encouraging conservation, what we now know as the Power Smart program. It began investigating future power sources, like geothermal, solar, wind and tidal power, all decades ahead of their time and the Site C dam was conceived and originally designed.When Norm retired as President of BC Hydro, he was referred to in the newspaper as Mr. Hydro, an appropriate title given his Hydro career that started in 1946 and spanned 40 continuous years. Norm''s retirement at age 62 marked a new beginning. He became a Director and Chairman of Health Labour Relations Association. In 1987, he was asked by the Federal Government to investigate the formation of a public power utility in the Northwest Territories and was a director of Northwest Territories Power Corporation from 1987 to 1997 and, for a brief time, its President. He joined the board of Edmonton Power (Epcor) in 1992 and remained a director until 2002. In 1992, he returned to BC Hydro as its Chairman and CEO. As a long time Director and President of the Canadian Electrical Association, in 1995 he was given their Distinguished Service Award. Over the years, he was a founding member of the BC Employers Council, director of the Canadian Gas Association, Canadian Nuclear Association, Canadian National Committee World Energy Conference, Canadian Standards Association, BC Safety Council, BC Chamber of Commerce, Health Employers Association, Boy Scouts, Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, Community Home Support Services Association, Yaletown House and a Member of the Board of Management at Grace Hospital (now BC Women''s).His greatest skill was his ability to work with people to bring out their best. He could take any group and get them working together by finding the unique strengths in each individual. A newspaper article written in 1985 about his time at Hydro said he wasn''t just well-liked, he was revered.When Norm was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, he told Dr. Larry Goldenberg that he would accept any treatment Dr. Goldenberg suggested but then it was the doctor''s job to keep him alive until age 90. Almost daily he expressed his gratitude for the care of Dr. Goldenberg and then Dr. Kim Chi, which allowed him to live a full and active life until recently at age 91. Mission accomplished.Norm is survived by his loving wife of 45 years, Norma; daughters Karen (husband Tom, daughter Claire) and Janet (husband Darrel, son Blake); sons Chris (wife Ruth, children Jennifer and Brian- wife, Jeannine and their children Emily and Olivia), Mark (wife Evon, their children Danielle, Thomas and Adam), Eric (wife Andrea, and their children Megan, Matthew and Mark). Our Hero will be missed greatly.A Memorial Service will be held at West Vancouver United Church, 2062 Esquimalt Avenue on Saturday, August 22 at 12:30 p.m. Reception to follow in the Church Hall.