Andy Olsen always loved science. Whether as a science teacher, an establishing director at Fernbank Natural Science Museum, or the first communications director of the DeKalb County School Board, he had a heart for the subject and for education.
“He just joyfully gave to whatever he cared about,” said Barbara Olsen, his wife of 52 years. A lifelong educator, Olsen also enjoyed marking flora on local nature trails in his free time and awarding college scholarships through the Elks Foundation, of which he was a member for 45 years.
Andy J. Olsen died April 25 in Chamblee, due to complications from a cyst on the base of his brain. He was 76. A memorial service is planned for Monday at 4 p.m. at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Chamblee.
He had slowed down in later years, but Olsen was known for actively pursuing life. “That man did not stop moving,” said his daughter Cathy Cox of Fort Worth, Texas. “He was bigger than life, always going at life’s full speed.”
Born in New York April 6, 1937, Olsen moved to Atlanta as a child. He attended Avondale High School and graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1960. It was at Oglethorpe he met his wife, the former Barbara Helen Coffey, a Texas native. He spotted her in the school cafeteria, and bet his friends he would marry her one day.
“When we married a year later, I saw $20 bills exchanging hands,” said Barbara Olsen, chuckling at the memory.
Upon his graduation, Olsen taught biology at Cross Keys High school. Olsen spent 30 years in the DeKalb School system.
Olsen left DeKalb in 1964 to earn his masters degree in Science Education at the University of Georgia. After a brief teaching stint at the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg, he returned to help bring the newly established Fernbank Science Center to life, a dream of DeKalb County Superintendent Jim Cherry.
“Fernbank was the most exciting thing that ever happened … the best part of what he loved,” his wife said. As the assistant director for physical sciences, Olsen was responsible for helping grow the center’s education programs, acquiring museum subjects, and even took a trip to Europe to gain ideas for Fernbank’s planetarium. Olsen was working for the museum in 1969, when world’s eyes turned on Fernbank’s one-of-a-kind telescope as it broadcast the launch of Apollo 11 mission, the first to put humans on the moon.
In 1972, the DeKalb school board hired Olsen as their public relations officer, the first in the state, his daughter said.
“He was a DeKalb County School person, and it was very important to him,” his wife said. It was his experience in education and love of teaching that made him excellent at his job, she said.
Olsen led the school system through many changes over several decades, until his retirement in August 1990. He navigated the federally mandated desegregation effort in the 70s and 80s. Olsen believed in equal opportunities for all students, regardless of race, and he worked hard to help others believe it, too.
“He had to wear the other guys shoes and help them try to understand it,” said his daughter. She remembered an evening when Olsen came home with spit stains from angry citizens on his jacket, but he always remained calm.
“He was always dad and very personable, but he was always somebody else too,” Cathy said. He was important to a lot of people, she said.
Olsen is also survived by his sons, Kruger Olsen of Chamblee, and Jonathan Scott Olsen of Wesley Chapel, Fla.; and 6 grandchildren.
About the Author
