Robert W. Olson, MD, of Santa Barbara, passed away June 4, 2026, at the age of 94. Born May 20, 1932, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Bob was the son of a military doctor whose postings carried Bob through six grammar schools, four junior highs, one high school, and three college undergraduate programs.
That itinerant lifestyle placed Bob, by sheer happenstance, on the edge of history again and again.
In 1941 his father was posted to Panama after a higher-ranking officer claimed the more desirable Philippines post; that officer later died at Bataan.
After Pearl Harbor, Bob was evacuated from Panama with his mother and siblings by zigzagging convoy and military escort through U-boat-patrolled waters to New Orleans.
In 1944, in Coral Gables, Florida, Bob caddied for his father during a weekly golf game with Ben Hogan, then stationed there assisting wounded servicemen.
In 1945, at Wright Field (the future Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton Ohio, Bob and his friends got into trouble for sneaking into the cockpits of captured German aircraft.
In 1947, debris from the “Roswell Crash” was delivered to Wright Field, where Bob’s father was the chief medical officer; the family never heard a word about what was found.
Bob served in the U.S. Air Force from 1959-61 at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, where he provided radiology services to the original Mercury 7 astronauts.
Through pure chance, he was present in London, staying two blocks from Buckingham Palace, for Princess Diana’s funeral procession in September 1997.
Bob attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi. After one transfer year at UC Berkeley, he attended Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, graduating in 1957.
After he finished his residency in radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, he joined Pueblo Radiology in Santa Barbara for a 39-year tenure, and served as president of the Santa Barbara County Medical Society in 1974.
Bob’s lifelong loves were his surviving wife of 68 years Theresa (née Rubalcava); his dear departed dogs; the St. Louis Cardinals; University of Nebraska football; his Lutheran faith; and golf at La Cumbre Country Club over a 60-plus year membership.
He was still playing golf until four months before his death, and is believed to be the oldest member ever to record a hole-in-one at La Cumbre — on the 7th, at 92 years, 10 months and 26 days.
Bob is also survived by his three children Robert Olson Jr. (Conni Mattingly), Susan Olson Sipes (James Ley), and Nancy (Tony) Braxton; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his younger siblings Janet and Tommy, and by his lifelong best friend Dr. Dale Hines, with whom he attended four years of high school, two years at Miami, and four years at Northwestern.
Bob will be sorely missed by his family and many friends.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. July 8 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 380 N. Fairview Ave., Goleta; interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the SBCC Foundation, Rene R. Ramos, RT Scholarship Fund for radiography technician training.