Harold (Hal) Olsen was born in Casper, WY, on August 12, 1931, to Jens and Anna Olsen. The youngest of four siblings, he attended Casper schools and received his S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. in Civil Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While in graduate school he spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Naples, Italy. Upon graduation he joined the United States Geological Survey as a Research Civil Engineer and had a long and successful career with the USGS in Washington, DC, Palo Alto, CA and Denver, CO. After retirement in 1994, he joined the faculty at the Colorado School of Mines as a Research Professor. He and his wife moved to steamboat Springs, CO in 1995. He died peacefully at the Doak Walker House on April 14, 2016 after a long battle with Parkinson's. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte Jensen, Steamboat Springs; his daughter, Nina Olsen, Minneapolis, MN; two sons, Karl Olsen, Denver, CO, and Matthew (Dan) Olsen, Ordway, CO; and two stepsons, Eric Jensen, Palo Alto, CA and Kirk Jensen, Adelaide, Australia.