Carl Olson

CARL JOHN OLSON Longtime Enterprise-Record employee Carl John Olson died Dec. 5. He was 68 and had non-hodgkins lymphoma for three years and, just recently, stomach cancer. Carl was born in upper Michigan. After his high school graduation, his family headed west. Once in Chico, Carl found part-time work for an electronics shop and then landed a full-time job at the ER. He worked in the composing department on the production side of the newspaper for 44 years until his retirement. He was an electronics whiz who owned six computers and one laptop; one of the computers he built from scratch. He also built a 10 inch Newtonian telescope by himself as he was also an amateur astronomer. Carl taught himself Morse code, needed for his ham radio operator's license. He had a tower in his backyard that allowed him to talk to people arround the world. He was proud of his call letters and used them on his car license plate. Carl's top passion was music, usually paired with beer and usually played very loud. He started out on his grandmother's accordian. But waltz's and polka's gave way to a new music form -- rock 'n roll. So Carl taught himself to play the guitar and keyboards. One time, the decibel level was so loud that he blew out a side window of his home. Style wasn't something he was into. However, his uniform was made up of white velcroed slipons, brown Dickie trousers topped with plaid flannel shirts in winter and white T-shirts in summer. Three years into retirement, Carl broke his right arm and the cancer was found. No more bebopping around town in his late 60's turquoise Datson truck--he couldn't shift. Chemo followed, where some of the nurses commented on how his voice sounded like Jimmy Stewart's. That always made Carl smile. Then came radiation. After one radiation session, Carl used his geiger counter on himself to see if he was radioactive--he was. Carl knew lots of people, their age didn't matter. People took to him because he didn't try to impress and was always himself. But the best thing was...he never said a mean word about anyone. Carl is survived by his brother Bill, his brother Stephen and Stephen's wife Van, his sister Jenny, his daughter Carlene, his ex-wife Bonnie and his friends--all of whom will smile and remember Carl whenever "Louie Louie" is played.