Background
Olson was born on November 5, 1938, in the small town of Rolla, North Dakota.
attorney general governor lawyer
Olson was born on November 5, 1938, in the small town of Rolla, North Dakota.
University of North Dakota.
He defeated incumbent Arthur A. Link in the 1980 race for governor and served one term. He received a law degree from the University of North Dakota where he joined Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity and served in the United States Army as a judge advocate general"s corps lawyer In 1967 he served as Chief of Military Justice in Munich, West Germany.
From 1967 to 1969 he served as the assistant director of the Legislative Research Committee, which directed the state"s first study of strip mining, soil banks and land reclamation.
He entered the private practice of law in 1969 with the law firm of Conmy, Rosenberg, Lucas and Olson. He ran for attorney general in 1972 and served two terms in that position.
In 1980, Olson sought the governor"s office and successfully defeated incumbent Governor Arthur Link. He also worked with the Task Force on Drunk Driving and supported the Garrison Diversion program
A controversial lawsuit against the state by the Association of Retarded Citizens was also filed during his years as governor.
He ran for re-election in 1984, but was defeated by Democrat George A. Sinner. After losing the election and leaving office, he returned to private law practice in Bismarck for a year before leaving for Minneapolis to join the law firm of Fredrikson and Byron. In 1987, he left the firm to become co-owner of a die-casting company based in New Hope, Minnesota.
He also ran a community bank association for many years.
He serves as a commissioner of the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States, having been appointed to the position by President George West. Bush in 2002. On October 4, 2010, Olson announced that he was backing Independence Party candidate Tom Horner in the 2010 Minnesota gubernatorial election.
North Dakota Republican Party, Republican Party.