Ray Mortimer Olds, Jr. (April 13, 1933-September 28, 2021)
Mort Olds was a man after the heart of the Book of Ecclesiastes: affluent, hard to impress, stoic, quiet, yet with gentleness, steadfastness, and unassuming wisdom. When I was kid, a friend of his told me that she had never heard him speak negatively about anyone, which she considered a high mark of modesty and character and hoped I would, too. From then on, I did, carrying that insight forward to discern any violation. He never did.
In high school, he took a career aptitude test in which he tested in the high 90th percentiles in all fields except a 34th percentile for nursing. The test result sheet had a space for him to enter what field this test was leading him to consider. His handwritten response was simply, “Nursing.” I tell that story to my sons, and they say, “That is SO papa!” referring to his ever-present dry wit.
A sixth-generation native of Michigan, Mort was the son of Ray M. Olds, Sr. and Mary Belle Vinkemulder and sister of Marjorie Olds Leenhouts. He was a motivated sportsman: a 9-varsity letter winner at East Grand Rapids High School, a 1950 state champion high school basketball guard, and the quarterback of the Grand Valley Conference runner up who received the offer of a football scholarship from Biggie Munn at Michigan State College. He was an “old goat” veteran of 25 Chicago-Mackinac sailboat races and had 4 golf holes-in-one over his lifetime. He was also an accomplished skier, tennis player, and fisherman.
A Navy enlist right after Korea, he was discharged
from basic training by action of Grand Rapids congressman Gerald Ford to run his family’s
wholesale business after the death of his own father. He later took a turn on the
Board of Governors of Fountain Street Church and mentored jailed youth as part
of the Grand Rapids Optimist Club. He later taught high school science and math to
adolescents with severe behavioral challenges. He also endowed a need-based scholarship
at the Duke University School of Engineering from which he had received his
undergraduate degree (Phi Beta Kappa junior year).
Mort retired to Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas; Boca Grande, FL; and finally Sarasota, FL. Until the year before his death, he had a summer residence for 45 years in Macatawa, MI where he had hunted ducks with his father in the 1940s and in the 1970s became a long-term active member of the Macatawa Bay Yacht Club.
He
is preceded by 3 months in death by his wife of 46 years, Sandra (Reynalds). He is
survived by his first wife of 20 years whom he met at Duke, Sarah Suzanne
(Glassmire) Olds, and by 3 sons (Rev. Douglas B. Olds of Mill Valley, CA; Todd R. Olds of Annapolis, MD, and Michael D. Olds of Sarasota, FL), 3 stepsons (John, Robert, and Ronald "Gus" Wilson), 4 grandsons (Nicholas, Connor, Rowan, and Evan Olds), 1 granddaughter (Julia Olds), 4 step-grandchildren and 5 step-great-grandchildren.
Cruciform suffering is a fact of life. One CAN and
should take it relationally as well as personally. By the mutually charismatic
embrace of tight companioning, grief jagged and isolating can be transformed
into mourning’s loving and tear-soaked recollection like lump coal a diamond. We hope this will be the case for those who loved Mort, one of creation's gems.
