and Arlen Erdahl, Governor Al Quie, and he was invited to and attended President Ronald Reagan's first term inaugural. Employed for 46 years in the Defense industry by Lockheed Martin and predecessor companies, he was involved in the acquisition of significant contract wins and held many engineering roles, including Chief Project Engineer on several top secret military contracts. He once orchestrated a demo for the Shipboard Integrated Processing and Display System (SHINPADS) Serial Data Bus (SDP) program for Dr. Bill Perry who later became Secretary of Defense. He was the lead program engineer on the US Airforce Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center, a $100M plus program designed, built and tested just in time to control the war in Desert Storm. Richard was extremely proud of his Norwegian heritage and upbringing. He was loved by his family and friends from all phases of his life and will be missed by all. He is preceded in death by his wife of 54 years Lela Ione Wermager, his sister Ellen Grabau, father Julius Olson and mother Gladys (Larson) Olson. He is survived by his children Pamela Olson (Burnsville), Kristine Olson (St. Paul), and David Olson (Perham); his grandchildren Alexandra Olson, Erika Olson, Zachry Olson, and Sophie Vass; his siblings Julie Skogen, Robert Olson, Sharon Mathison, and Philip Olson along with many cousins, nieces,