with
deep admiration
“No matter what you write,
you can’t say enough good about them,” was a typical reaction from a neighbor following
the Tuesday deaths of William and Margaret (Peg) Olson, a Madison couple killed
by lightning at a Lake Delton golf course.
William, 37, of 6605 Regis
Road, was a popular athletic director and math teacher at James Madison
Memorial High School. Peg, 34, was a former athletics teacher at Orchard Ridge and
mother of three children: Kristin, 6; David, 5; and Amy, 8 months.
“She had an extremely strong faith in God.” said neighbor Shelly Schwarz. “I think she wouldn’t even question what happened to them . . . she would accept it as God’s will. She had a beautiful faith and it was a source of strength for all of us.”
The Olsons were killed while
waiting out a rain storm under a small shelter at the Dell View golf course.
They were electrocuted when lightning apparently struck nearby and the charge traveled
along some water to the golf club Mr. Olson was holding. Mrs. Olson had her arm
around her husband’s shoulder at the time.
Mrs. Olson was known around the neighborhood as a “warm and giving” person who always went out of her way for neighbors, especially new neighbors. “She was always right there when someone moved into the area,” next door neighbor Jill Emmons said today. “The first day we moved in here four years ago, she came and planted flowers ... she said she did it so I’d remember her by them. “I tell you, I don’t even want to go into the backyard anymore. I always used to see her out there and we’d talk.”
While Peg was remembered as a “stabilizing factor” in the
neighborhood, her husband is remembered at Memorial as an athletic director who
went beyond the call of duty for both the students and the faculty. “He enjoyed
teaching tremendously ... he was very proud of his classroom work,” according
to football coach and close friend Wally Schoessow. “I’ve had a phenomenal number of calls from
students, from everyone, about this.”
Memorial basketball coach Al Verdin, another close friend,
added that the three most important things in Bill’s life were his family, his
math teaching and athletics. “He was very committed to all three,” Verdin said.
“But mainly he was committed to people... he was so friendly and never too busy
for people.”
“He always seemed interested in women’s sports too,” said
girl’s basketball and volleyball coach Nancy Pederson. “He would always ask if there
was anything he could do for us ..and he came to our games. He was just super
to work with.”
Schoessow said the faculty is starting a Bill and Peg
Olson Memorial Fund.He said the money would be given to Bill’s brother John
Olson, assistant principal at Memorial, and to Peg’s parents to “set up some
sort of trust fund for the kids.”
The Olsons’ two- oldest children were staying with Mrs.
Olson’s parents in Indiana at the time of the accident. They are due back in
Madison today.
Funeral arrangements announced this morning call for an
open visitation at the Joyce Funeral Home, 5701 Odana Road, from 5 p.m. to 8:30
p.m. Friday. There will be a private funeral service for the immediate family
Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Roselawn Memorial Park followed by a memorial service
open to the public at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Bethel Lutheran Church.
Mr. Olson had been athletic director at Memorial since
1974. He had been an assistant football coach and math teacher prior to then
and continued to teach math when he became athletic director.
He was a 1962 graduate of the University of
Wisconsin-LaCrosse, where he captained the football team. He was born and
raised in Madison. He coached in Michigan for one year and then taught at
Orchard Ridge for two years before moving to Memorial.
Mrs. Olson graduated from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and went on to teach physical education at Orchard Ridge. She
met her husband at that school.
Superintendent of Madison Schools Douglas Ritchie said he was “tremendously shocked” by the deaths. “He (Olson) was the kind of a guy you wanted associated with your school program and with the kids. He put in many long hours for the children,” Ritchie said today.
“It’s just difficult to picture them as gone ... they were
so much alive and so concerned with other people,” Schoessow said.
“We all feel a tremendous sense of loss,” Schwarz stated.
Contributions to the memorial fund are requested instead
of flowers at the funeral. They should be sent to Memorial High School, 201 S.
Gammon Road, 53717.