Richard Kenneth Olsen Obituary (2024)

Rev. Dr. Richard K. Olsen passed away of natural causes on July 4th, 2024. He left behind Connie Damata, his wife of 35 years, as well as his son Erik, stepson Lamar, and his two brothers, Clifford and David. His lifelong pursuit of education included a Bachelor's degree, two Masters, a PhD, Chaplaincy College, and numerous classes in crisis intervention and grief counseling. Of all of these, he was most proud of his degree from Fuller Seminary. Rick died doing what he had loved doing for over 60 years, and that was talking to people from around the world while hanging out in his favorite place on the planet, his "Ham Shack". Over the years, Rick (N6NR) made contacts in over 330 countries, and even at 75, could still send/receive Morse code at over 40 words per minute. This lifelong hobby started young, and while living in Arizona (having moved there from Chicago where he was born), Rick often recalled working after school as a teenager with Sen. Barry Goldwater making radio connections between families and their children who were serving in Vietnam. His love of ham radio led him to a profession as a communications engineer, becoming one of the top RF (radio frequency) engineers in the world. He started out as an Electronics Technician in the Navy and worked for companies such as Motorola, General Dynamics, TRW, and PacTel over the next 40 years. He traveled to Greece, Israel, Korea, China, and Indonesia, to name a few, designing and building more cellular systems on the globe than any other engineer at that time. Anyone who knew him would agree, he loved radios and good conversation! The Lord gave Rick the most beautiful tenor voice and when you heard him, you would have thought you were listening to Pavarotti's little brother. He actually turned down the Metropolitan Opera House. He started singing professionally in barbershop as a teen, moving on to opera and bluegrass. At one time, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley even asked Rick and his band to be their opening number on the road, they were that good. Rick was known as 'Padre' and 'Chaplain' by the law enforcement and fire departments he worked with for the last 24 years. He went on over 400 death calls for Eastside Fire and Rescue, Washington State Patrol, Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, and for the last 8 years, the Yakima County Sheriff's Department, helping those who had lost their loved ones through their difficult times. Rick loved to fly, and when he knew he would be losing his private pilot license due to diabetes, he joined the Civil Air Patrol so that he could still get a flight in once and a while. He was very active these last few years as the Wing Chaplain for the State of Washington, as well as Chaplain and Communications Officer in the Yakima Composite Squadron. Though he still loved ham radio, singing, and flying, his latest passion was photography which he first became interested in when he was in the Navy. Thursday, his last day with us, he took pictures of the wind generator fields in the morning (promptly posting them on Facebook, of course), then played cards with his wife in the early afternoon before heading out to his Ham Shack as he did most days for a few hours of radio play, after which he would normally have joined Connie for a couple of hours watching TV. Please join us to celebrate Rick's life at Stone Church, 3303 Englewood Ave., Yakima, WA, on July 22nd. Viewing will be at noon, service at 1:00, and refreshments thereafter. There will be a short time to share your stories about him. Rejoice! Rick is now singing with the angels. Brookside Funeral Home is caring for the family. Memories and condolences may be shared at www.brooksidefuneral.com