{"id":7433,"date":"2025-08-08T03:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=7433"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:38:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:38:32","slug":"oliver-k-olson-1927-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=7433","title":{"rendered":"Oliver K. Olson (1927\u20142025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Oliver K. Olson, founding editor of Lutheran Quarterly<\/em> (new series) and president of its Board of Directors for decades, died peacefully in Minneapolis on August 5, 2025.  He was 98 years old.  His family has provided a full obituary for our website (see below) Olson\u2019s achievement in launching a new series of Lutheran Quarterly <\/em>in 1987 was summarized upon its twenty-fifth year of publication.
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All those involved in the early years know that the single reason this publication exists, humanly speaking, is Oliver K. Olson. [Forty] years ago, Olson saw the need and the opportunity for a journal of Lutheran history and evangelical theology, in detail and depth.  The original and venerable Lutheran Quarterly <\/em>had ceased publication, and other Lutheran journals were mostly light fare for busy pastors and driven by opinionated editorials.  He envisioned a pan-Lutheran global array of definitive articles and authoritative book reviews, with no editorials and no sermons.  The historical essays could be long and detailed, as needed, and the theology was to be sola fide <\/em>evangelical .  Yet, how to start such an enterprise, and could it endure?  His initiative and creativity, fueled by a dogged determination, inspired enough partners to make a start, almost ex nihilo.  <\/em>Every aspect of the operation reflected and still reflects his touch, from incorporation to production.  Take the VDMA motto, for example.  Olson knew its history, as now summarized under every Table of Contents.  But it was his eye for a design that yielded the now familiar square logo that identifies Lutheran Quarterly.  <\/em>[VDMA logo.]  He raised money, recruited collaborators, edited, and proof-read, all with a singular vision that in fact became an enduring reality, against great odds.  Oliver K. Olson is the founder to be recognized first as LQ turns 25.<\/p>\n

– Lutheran Quarterly<\/em> 25 (2011): 176<\/p>\n

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Since 2011, Olson continued to serve as the president of the Board of Directors until 2019, and then as a supportive president emeritus until his death.  None of us currently on the masthead and no one ever associated with our publication could have pushed and pulled the idea of this venture into reality.  The Board and staff of Lutheran Quarterly <\/em>share his family\u2019s loss and gives thanks to God for the life, work, and ministry of Oliver K. Olson.<\/p>\n

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Oliver K. Olson was the founding editor of Lutheran Quarterly (new series) and president of its Board of Directors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7433"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7633,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7433\/revisions\/7633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}