Bob Olson

Bob Olson

e-mail: rolson25 at gmail dot com

phone: (952) 920-8327

After high school I went to Dartmouth College and roomed with Paul Johnson and Jim Hale. Later I attended Medical School at the University of Minnesota.
I was an intern in San Francisco during The Summer of Love (1968—when the first Hippies congregated in Golden Gate Park). I lived in Berkeley, grew a moustache, wore my hair long, and when I wasn’t on duty at the county hospital went to the Fillmore to see Janis Joplin, The Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix.
Returning to Minnesota and reality I was studying Internal Medicine at the University when I was summarily drafted and sent to Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta with the Navy’s Swift Boats and SEALS (I didn’t know John Kerry). There, when not triaging war casualties, curing VD and dealing with drug abuse I treated Vietnamese civilians—and actually had a small leprosy clinic.
Following Viet Nam I spent a year at the Naval Hospital in Oakland and I met my wife, Karen (a third generation San Franciscan). Jim Hale was an attendant at our wedding.
After returning to Minnesota to finish training at the University I took a position as Asst. Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and Chief of Gastroenterology (stomachs and intestines) at Ramsey County Hospital—where Paul Johnson was Chief of Pulmonary Medicine. I was there for twenty-five years (serving as Chief of Staff) before semi-retiring (I take Friday off) in 2002. I now work at the outpatient clinic across from North Memorial Hospital, not far from my home near Cedar Lake.
My two daughters are grown and now live in California and Connecticut. I am an avid gardener, served as president of the Minneapolis Gardening Club, and edit a gardening magazine on Hostas (my specialty). I also enjoy cycling, the opera—where I see Rolf Svendson, and the Gopher wrestling team—where I don’t know anyone. If you are interested, I’d be eager to show you my garden and bore you with stories of Hosta Hunting in the mountainous wilderness of Japan.



1. Something that might surprise my classmates…
I gave up my Vikings seats for season tickets to the Opera.
2. Who knew that 50 years after graduation I would be the same weight as in high school (but the sand is moving rapidly to the bottom of my once hour glass figure).
3. I plan that in Act III I will write a book about Vietnam, edit a gardening magazine, hybridize perennial plants and spend a lot more time with my friends and family.
4. I have learned in the past 50 years there is a corollary to Tom Wolfe’s adage “you can never go home again”; it is “you can’t stand pat either”. You must constantly seek opportunities for new adventures—and enjoy the journey.