James Michael Olsen

James Michael Olsen (11/22/1941-4/8/2020) passed away on April 8th at 11:05 pm. We take comfort in knowing that his first and beloved wife Diane Olsen (who passed in 1986) will be waiting for him along with his father Oscar Olsen, mothers-in-Law Bessie Ryall and Lilian Dugdale, sister Pat Bennett and brother Gary Turpin, good friend Eddie Softli, along with many other close family and friends who paved the way. His name was James, but those who knew him called him Jim. He also answered to “Oly” or Coach Olsen. He hated being called James because, he said, that was a butler’s name.

Jim was born in Longview, Washington and spent his younger years growing up in Raymond Washington. His first 10 years were rough. He and his older brother Gary spent their time rotating from foster home to foster home until he was 10 years old. The stories he told of his time in the foster homes are heartbreaking. Jim never used his early years as an excuse, the proof is in how he chose to live his life, with strength, integrity, and a sense of humor.

In high school, Jim played basketball, baseball and ran track. He enjoyed these sports, but the game he really stood out in was football. Jim was the star running back for the local football team. He was good enough to start at many colleges, but Raymond wasn’t a town where college recruiters visited. After high school Jim went into the U.S Air Force for four years. In the Air Force, Jim was selected, because of the outstanding scores and aptitude he demonstrated in the testing administered by the Air Force, to join a relatively new field, computers. After the Air Force Jim went on to work for Boeing in Seattle for a couple of years, which was good because he decided that working with computers was not for him.

During this time Jim met his first wife Diane. They spent the majority of their time together with their two kids living in Mountlake Terrace. They were married for 22 years until Diane passed away from cancer in 1986. Before Diane passed, Jim made a name for himself in the neighborhood by coaching Basketball with a team made up from the local kids and friends of his son Craig. The team was called the Red Tide and played together for 4-5 years, winning the Championship 3 times. Some of Jim’s best memories were coaching this team. True to Jim’s heart and kindness, he made sure everybody on that team had a role and felt like they were a part of the team’s accomplishments.

After Jim passed, his daughter Lisa said, “We were lucky, we had an amazing dad,” his son Craig replied “he was everybody’s dad.” Truer words could not be said. Jim spent most of his time, when he wasn’t working, mentoring the local kids in the neighborhood and from whatever school he was teaching or coaching at the time. For years, Jim would take a load full of kids in his truck to work out and play basketball in the school gym. He coached, nurtured, and encouraged all the kids. This time was special for him as he had as much fun as the kids did. You just knew he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

After Boeing, Jim followed his passion and went to Everett CC, where he picked up playing football again. This was followed by two more years at the University of Washington, where he graduated with a BA in Education. While attending the University of Washington, he was approached by the coach, who was trying hard to recruit him. He played in a few games, but unfortunately, his life was too busy at the time. He had a wife and two kids, and the academic work at UW. He had to make a hard choice. Something had to go, and it wasn’t going to be his family. Jim was always a husband and father first.

Following UW, Jim became a teacher at Monroe Junior High teaching English and coaching both football and track. It was here that he really knew that he had made the right choice. He loved teaching and coaching with a passion. It was also during this time that he again picked up playing football. Are you sensing a theme here? He played for years with the Seattle Cavaliers semi pro football team. Some of his best stories were from his time with the Cavaliers.

On November 21, 1987 Jim married the other love of his life, Lynda Olsen. Lynda had two sons, Todd and Matthew Henderson. Between the two of them they were able to send four kids through college, which is a great accomplishment. Throughout their years together, Jim and Lynda went on several adventures. They went on trips to different parts of Mexico, Hawaii, New Orleans, Florida, Grand Canyon, Brice, Idaho, California, New Mexico, Arizona (for sixth months), and Victoria. Some of these were family vacations with the kids and grandkids. Lots of fun memories.

In their later years, they made lots of special memories on the cruises that they embarked on. They went on three cruises, the Alaskan cruise, the Panama Canal cruise, and the Caribbean cruise. During these cruises they visited places like Fort Lauderdale, Cartagena, Columbia, Colon Panama, the Panama Canal, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Puerto, Quetzal Guatemala, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Cabo San Lucas, and Santiago.

Throughout his life, Jim dipped in and out of activism (mostly in). In his later years, he and Lynda marched for several causes that they felt strongly about, some of these were women’s rights, equal marriage rights, teachers rights, etc.. They enjoyed these times together, bonding over causes they both cared a lot about.

Jim was a true renaissance man, beloved by his family, friends, students, players, colleagues and neighbors. He spent much of his time in the weight room, encouraging and pushing his students and others who came to workout with him to do their best. He loved reading with a passion as well as poetry. He instilled this love to many of his students. His lessons always had a touch of humor along with a meaningful message. In his spare time, Jim published two non-fiction books. That’s All Right Mama, about his adopted mother and We Paid to Play, about his years playing semi-pro football. Both books can be purchased on Amazon.

After Monroe, Jim went to Alderwood Junior High where he continued to teach English and coach Football and track. From there he went to Explorer Junior High and settled in at Mariner High School in the Mukilteo school District. He spent several years here, where he had so many good memories teaching and coaching with his good friends and colleague John Ondriezek, Tom Myhre, Brad Agerup (deceased), Glen Smith, Darlene Miller, Bill Ojeda, Chris Crockett, and the others on the Mariner Marauder football coaching team. At Mariner, he helped develop several players who went on to play at major universities and in the NFL. Along with his coaching successes, he was most proud of the fact that every letter of student recommendation he wrote was accepted. He poured his heart and soul into those letters.

Retirement came for Jim around 2007. Had it not been for his health, Jim would have taught forever. By this time, Jim had taken some pretty big lumps to his health and was forced to slow down. He had recently been diagnosed with hydrocephalus, and before that he suffered a staph infection in his spine, which sent him to the hospital, and a rehabilitation center for months. Unfortunately, the infection had done so much damage, he needed months of physical therapy to learn basic motor skills, along with the big ones, like learning to walk again. Even at some of his darkest moments, he kept his sense of humor. While laying in the emergency room at Harbor View hooked up to all the monitors, IV’s in his arms, smoke billowing out of the oxygen mask, so much that it was hard to see him…. He murmured “I’m melting…..” in an homage to the famous witch in the Wizard of OZ.

Jim and Lynda moved to Bellingham five and a half years ago. They moved to be closer to Jim’s childhood friend Dick Kalla and his wife Pat. They spent days reminiscing of the old days growing up in Raymond, playing football, and enjoying all that Bellingham had to offer.

His family, wife Lynda, daughter Lisa, son Craig and grandkids, Alexie and Quin were with him at the end. He held tight to Lynda’s hand as he breathed his final breath. His love for Lynda was absolute. She took care of him after he suffered a stroke and found it difficult to get around. To him, she was an angel. He will surely be waiting for her when her time comes.

We apologize if we missed anyone, Jim touched many lives, it was overwhelming…

One last note…Jim said to Lynda in the hospital, “if I don’t make it, make sure my ballot gets mailed in. Anybody but Trump…” Rest in peace Coach Olsen.


In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations go to the Jim Olsen Blue and Gold fund, a fund that Jim Olsen helped set up 25 years ago. The proceeds go to the students at Mariner High School, providing opportunities for athletics, food, AP testing, clothing, and whatever else a student would need to be a success and have opportunities to grow. The same things Jim Olsen did his entire life.

http://www.venmo.com/JimOlsenBlueAndGold