David E. Olsson
May 17, 1917 – January 15, 1997
Toward the end of his 25-year career as administrator-president of San Jose's largest non-prot, full-service hospital, David E. Olsson wrote a textbook about his work.
The principles in that book and how he applied them at San Jose Medical Center earned him the 1972 Walker Fellowship, awarded to the leading California hospital administrator to finance the study of health systems abroad.
The travels of Mr. Olsson and his wife, Comfort, in seven countries advanced his role as a policymaker on his return, but the trip also launched him on a new career.
At Clavering Hill Cattle Ranch on Crothers Road in the east San Jose foothills, Mr. Olsson soon began raising Maine-Anjou, a breed of huge French cattle the Olssons had seen in Europe.
For nearly 20 years, after stepping down from day-to-day supervision of the hospital, Mr. Olsson worked to breed the purest Maine-Anjou possible. At one time, the Olssons had a herd of 120 and supplied fast-growing bulls and cows for cross-breeding by other ranchers around the country. The Maine-Anjou could grow to 3,000 pounds, twice the size of a typical black Angus, and the beef was as lean and tender and tasty as any anywhere, Mr. Olsson said.
In 1968, long before it became routine business practice, David Olsson wrote his book, ''Management by Objectives,'' with the operation of his hospital in mind, but his Maine-Anjou avocation certainly didn't suffer from the rationale, said his son Andrew. ''All in all, I know I made the right decision to retire and raise these animals full time,'' Mr. Olsson said in a 1984 interview. ''It got to the point where I got a bit weary of hearing the same old arguments from younger and younger doctors on how things ought to be done. So I decided to make my move before I died on the job. Now, we've got a balance.''
Mr. Olsson kept that balance for most of a dozen more of his 79 years before he died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at the hospital he had joined as an intern in 1948.
A native of Oakland, David Olsson grew up in Danville, where his mother was a teacher and his father was constable, hospital superintendent and Contra Costa County supervisor. Young Mr. Olsson graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga just in time to enlist in the Army and complete Officer Candidate School before being sent to Europe with the 95th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force.
He met Comfort Winter Rose, and after a 10-month courtship, Maj. Olsson and his fiance were married in 1945.
He came to what was then Community Service Hospital in San Jose while earning his master's degree from the University of Minnesota, and he was named administrator three years later on the death of administrator William Butler in 1951.
Mr. Olsson shepherded the growth of CSH – which became San Jose Hospital, with ''and Health Center'' added later – as it grew from 150 beds to a 500-bed, 2,000-employee medical center. ''He was a true visionary,'' said Benjamin Hirano, one of Mr. Olsson's administrators who rose to vice president. ''He saw the concept of a health mall long before its time and had me buy up surrounding property.'' The complex now extends between 13th and 17th streets on Santa Clara Street in San Jose.
Hirano also saw his mentor as a student of management: ''He really believed that to run an organization, all his people ought to know as much as possible about it.''
Mr. Olsson did that at Thursday breakfast ''seminars'' for his staff, assigning each, for example, to take a chapter in Peter Drucker's ''The Practice of Management'' and lead the discussion. ''Nobody else took the time to do that,'' Hirano said.
It was the same for Nadine Spaich Pueger, who was struck by her boss's kindness during 27 years working in hospital administrative ofces.
But for Mr. Olsson's seven children, whose occupations include library science, law, business, architecture, construction and education, he was ''gregarious, humorous, principled – beyond honest,'' said Andrew Olsson, the lawyer. ''But he should have copyrighted MBO.''
Survived by: Wife, Comfort Olsson of San Jose; sons, Andrew of Los Gatos, John of Benicia, William of Santa Clara; daughters, Astrid DeBuhr of St. Louis, Nancy Olsson of Campbell, Barbara Olsson of San Jose, Tracey Olsson-Nitkey of San Francisco; brothers, Robert of Applegate, Calif., John of Martinez; ve grandchildren; two step-grandchildren.
Services: Memorial at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 81 N. Second St., San Jose.
Memorial: Donations may be made to the Diabetes Society of Santa Clara Valley, 1165 Lincoln Ave., Suite 300, San Jose, Calif. 95125.
San Jose Mercury News (CA) - Friday, January 17, 1997