| Graduation Year | Class of 1948 |
| Date of Passing | Oct 08, 2000 |
| About | Edda "Gentile" Olson Edda Olson died on the morning of October 8 2000 at Portage View Hospital in Hancock Michigan, following a several year battle with cancer. Edda was fortunate enough to attend her 50th Class Reunion in Hurley in 1998 when her cancer was in remission. Edda was born on June 15 1931 in Hurley. She graduated in 1948 from Hurley High School with her best girlfriend Betty Lou Baima. She married Bob Olson in November 1956 at St Mary's Catholic Church. She and Bob lived on Copper Street in Hurley until 1969 when they moved with their 5 daughters to Hancock Michigan where she lived until her death. Edda spent a great deal of time volunteering with Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, The Church of the Resurection as a Eucharistic Minister which included bringing communion to elderly shut-ins, and she spent alot of time doing charity work for the homeless in her community. She and her husband Bob started the country’s first college hockey poll in 1969. Edda conducted the WMPL College Hockey Poll every week up until the week before she passed away. She was a founding member of the Michigan Tech Hockey Blueline Club and an avid fan of the Division I MTU Hockey Huskies. Before the Internet was in its heyday ... before USCHO was born, a mere 35 percent of the nation had a personal computer, and less than 10 percent were online. The lifeline between coaches, parents, sports information directors, and the rest of hockey was WMPL's score service. When the score service began at Olson-owned WMPL in 1970, it was to college hockey then what USCHO was in 1996; not necessarily the best place for that kind of information, but the only place. In reality, most people in college hockey never knew Bob Olson. They knew Edda, his wife, even if not by name. When you called that famous number, Edda was likely on the other end. When Edda died in 2000, so did the scoreline. The marriage of Bob Olson and WMPL, with John MacInnes and Michigan Tech hockey, would not be complete, however, without a marriage of the much more conventional sort; the one between Olson and his loyal cohort and partner, his wife, Edda. In fact, for people in hockey, it's impossible to think of Bob without thinking of Edda too. "She was a big sports fan because she had brothers," says Olson, who met Edda at a church spaghetti dinner in Ironwood before getting married in the mid-'50s, "and she always used to have to listen to Harry Heilman on the [Detroit] Tigers games, because her brothers were working, and she had to listen to the games so she could tell them what happened when they got home. "She was the original recorder." When they bought the station in Houghton, Edda began helping out. Combine that with Bob's dedication and desire to go the extra mile, and it led to the two projects that put tiny WMPL at the center of the college hockey map for the next 30 years. All the while, Edda was there. While Bob was busy running the station or calling the games, Edda was calling the coaches, compiling the poll, recording the scores. It was that way right up until she passed away before the 2000-01 season. The poll and score line were retired, and soon Bob Olson was too. Survivors are her husband Bob who lives in Connecticut. Also surviving are her daughters Ramona, Marblehead Massachusetts, Rosana(Kyle) Hedahl, Des Moines Iowa, Peri, Grand Rapids Michigan, Julie, Grayslake Illinois & Kristine, Austin Texas; 4 grandchildren Amber, Angel, Lauren & Nicholas; 2 great grandchildren D'Angelo & Kapriece; 3 sisters, Mary Paoli, Ironwood, Esther Schiavetti, Wausau & Dora Gentile, Hurley, 1 brother Eugene, St Paul Minnesota. Edda was preceded in death by her parents and 3 brothers Anthony, John & Domenic. Submitted by Rosana Olson Hedahl, Edda's daughter. I would appreciate hearing from any of my mother's classmates. Rosana Olson Hedahl 100 Market Street #221 Des Moines Iowa 50309 (515) 664-8563 (515) 783-1321 erin2535@q.com rolson1977@hotmail.com |
