The York52 Search Committee:
 
For many months running now the York52 Search Committee has been a committee of but one...Ralph (Punky...aka Steve) Stevens, York '52.  Sure, along the way Punky got some help from others, including myself, Dick Benjamin, Ken Jones, Dave Buswell, Wayne Mahood, Glen Schricker and Ted Truskie but it's always been a passion with Punky Stevens.  I think Punky started out with a charge from Doris Strickland Collins, ChairPerson of our 50th Reunion Committee, to help out by working on the Class of '52's "missing persons" list.  Initiallly that list had around a hundred missing 'Yorkies' on it.  But by June, less than four months away from our 50th Reunion, because of Punky's relentless pursuit and seemingly tireless effort, our missing persons' list had shrunk to less than 40. Of course in the process of the many searches, quite a few names were transferred to the In Memoriam list of deceased classmates (we're up to 64 as of this writing). Many phone calls were made and emails written all around the country.  Of course what made it all the more difficult was that a good one-half of the persons being searched for didn't even have the same last name as they did when they graduated from York, because through marriage(s), their last names had disappeared forever.  But Punky, the search team and even new-found classmates offering suggestions to find others, found many York52 persons and will continue the search until all are accounted for, despite the seemingly insurrmountable odds against doing so.  Thanks Punky, for all your successful journeys.
 
....Bruce Downey, York '52, August, 2002************************************  
           
 
The Process of finding missing persons:
 
Generally speaking, the process of finding missing persons followed a pattern.  We began these "journeys," as we called them, with whatever information we had at our disposal.  For example, we had the Elmhurst Press which way back in June, 1952 published the full names of our graduating class, including middle names--the middle initial subsequently proving to be quite a crucial piece of information to our cause.  And we also had bits and pieces of information from previous Class of 1952 Reunions which often proved particulary helpful by providing us with their then last known married names.  But we typically began our journeys by going to ancestry.com's SSDI (Social Security Death Index), keying-in the last known married name and using Illinois as the state of origin relating to their initial registration under the Social Security System.  This is typically how we found names of classmates to be added to our In Memoriam list.  One evening I found five classmates at the SSDI website and, accordingly, I didn't sleep very well that night.  But if we didn't find a missing person at SSDI, we breathed a sigh of relief and went on to USSearch.com where we keyed-in our missing person's name and approximate age and that site responded by providing us with a listing of everyone in the country having that name, including their age and most importantly their present location, i.e., city and state.  No street addresses or telephone numbers are available at USSearch.com, but at least we had a very solid place to start looking for our missing classmate(s).  We would then go to knowx.com, key in our missing person's name again, and compare the information found there with the USSearch.com results.  Then we would go to various and sundry on-line directories...places like people.yahoo.com, superpages.com, switchboard.com, whitepages.com, and realwhitepages.com.  These on-line directories would give us complete addresses and most importantly, telephone numbers, which generally matched up with the USSearch.com and knowx.com name, age, and city/state information.  Then telephone calls were made...one at a time...all around the country...and through the process of elimination, more often than not, we eventually found who it was that we had set out to look for.  Tedious and time consuming work, fraught with dead-ends ?  You bet.  But the ultimate reward for all our efforts was in actually talking with someone at the other end of the line who we all knew from a very, very long time ago.  "BINGO" (as described in Bruce Downey's first successful journey) is what we felt like shouting out, complete with all the instantaneous and exhilarating emotions that one experiences with such a winning moment.
 
As you might expect, no two journeys were ever exactly the same and there were some that took on very strange, even bizarre, twists and turns along the way. The "coincidence factor" (identical names, dates and locations) was often unbelievable and confirming that persons were alive or deceased took on new meaning. We thought you might like to see where some of our journeys took us, so a few of these are repeated here in their original e-mail notification format.  Each of the following stories was recently cleared with the respective "found" classmate for publication at this time at our York52 homepage.  
 
....Ralph Punky Stevens, York '52, August, 2002************************************                     
 
 
Four Search Stories follow--Pat O'Neill Boyd, Myrna Olsen Frappier, Nancy Brown Garippo, and Connie Wolfe Irish :
 
*********************************************************************
Pat O'Neill Boyd & Myrna Olsen Frappier ---both York '52      
 
(NOTE: publication of that portion of this search story relating to Pat O'Neill Boyd, York '52, was approved by Pat)
*********************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee 
To:  Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Cc: Wayne Mahood
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 10:59 PM
Subject: AMAZING ! (NOTE: publication of that portion of this search story relating to Pat O'Neill Boyd, York '52, was approved by Pat on ? / ?? / 02 and that portion relating to Al Olsen, York '57, was approved by Al on ? / ?? / 02)
 
Will wonders never cease ?  Today we find Patricia Audrey O'Neill  Boyd, York '52 living in Lake Ozark, MO, having moved there from her job working at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI.  Then there's an exchange of e-mails where Pat tells us of the possible passing of her friend, Myrna Olsen Frappier, York '52, some 20-25 years ago, giving us two leads...that she thought Myrna's last address was in the south (like say North Carolina) and that Myrna had say an uncle by the name of Al Olsen, living in Glen Ellyn---at least that was his last known address as far as she knew.
 
So tonight we went to superpages.com and searched for all the AL Olsen's living in Glen Ellyn, IL.  And we found two.  The first one we called...the number had been disconnected.  That left only one Al Olsen in Glen Ellyn.  BINGO !  The man at the other end of the line was indeed related to our Myrna Olsen...he was Myrna's younger brother !   We asked about Myrna and he confirmed that Myrna did indeed pass away several years ago, and he couldn't remember exactly when, but he said her surviving children would.  Myrna lived near Charleston, SC and had three children...two boys and a girl.  One of Myrna's boys is also deceased, and other lives nearby Al, and Myrna's daughter still lives in SC.  We told Al we would very much like to have Myrna's year of birth and year of death, plus an obituary, if possible, for our In Memoriam website.
 
We had a very interesting conversation with Al.  Turns out that Al was 5 years younger than Myrna and Al remembers his Ardmore Jr. Hi English and Home Room teacher as being none other than...you guessed it, Wayne...it was your mother, Ruth Mahood !!!  Now isn't that amazing ?  Moreover Al went on to York just as his older sister had done and graduated in the Class of 1957.  Al also remembers that Wayne's father taught at York and that his name was Victor Mahood.  And he even remembers that you too, Wayne, taught at York for a short time.  Now that's a pretty good memory that Al has, don't you all agree ?
 
Al also said he remembers the days when Pat O'Neill, York '52, used to come to his house when his sister was at York and he also knew that Pat was at the University of Wisconsin, but he didn't know Pat had moved to MO and he said he wanted Pat's address in MO.  So we told him we would e-mail him that information.  Al also knew that Pat lost her husband in an accident and that she raised two boys as a single parent.  We didn't have to prompt Al on any of this.  These were all his own recollections coming out in our conversation.
 
In summary, this whole experience has been AMAZING...I mean our contact with Pat earlier today, then talking with Myrna's younger brother, Al Olsen this evening, who, among others, remembers our Wayne Mahood, York '52, and  Wayne's mom and dad...and we did this all in the same day !  AMAZING. 
 
Here is a copy of our acknowledgement e-mail to Al Olsen--Myrna Olsen Frappier's (York '52) younger brother living in Glen Ellyn.  And here is Al's listing at superpages.com (edited out to protect Al:
 
Albert G. Olsen
nnn Street, Glen Ellyn, IL nnnnn
(nnn) nnn - nnnn
 
And then we sent Doris Strickland Collins, York '52, the usual bare-bones version of all this...just the fact that Myrna Olsen Frappier (York '52) had passed away and Pat O'Neill  Boyd's (York '52) name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
   
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: Albert G, Olsen www.nnnnnnn@nnnn.net <<<edited out to protect Al
Cc: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 10:42 PM
Subject: Myrna Olsen Frappier, York '52, deceased (NOTE: publication of that portion of this search story relating to Pat O'Neill Boyd, York '52, was approved by Pat on ? / ?? / 02 and that portion relating to Al Olsen, York '57, was approved by Al on ? / ?? / 02)
 
It was great talking to you this evening, Al.  You certainly have a great memory of the Washington School---Ardmore Jr. High School---York High School days.  And thanks for sharing some of those memories with us this evening.  You indicated that you wanted Patricia Audrey O'Neill Boyd's (York '52) current address.  And so here it is...
 
Patricia A. O'Neill  Boyd
730 Oak View Drive
Lake Ozark, MO 65049

Phone: 573-348-2294 

email: bigbird@advertisnet.com 
 
We will tell Pat of our success in finding you and give Pat your address as well.
 
And thanks, too, Al, for following through with finding out your sister, Myrna's, year of birth and year of death for us....and trying to get us a copy of Myrna's obituary if anyone in Myrna's surviving family can find one.
 
And we invite you and Myrna's surviving family to go to our York52 In Memoriam website where we have the names of 57 deceased classmates posted, including that of your sister, Myrna.  Here's that website address:  http://york1952.tripod.com/ .
 
 
Thanks again, Al.
 
*********************************************************************
NANCY BROWN GARIPPO, York H.S. 1948-50 and Crystal Lake H.S. Class of '52
 
(NOTE: publication of this search story at our York52 website was approved by Nancy on 5/28/02)
*********************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To:  Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 11:57 AM
Subject: FOUND: Nancy Brown, York H.S. 1948-1950, graduating from Crystal Lake H.S. '52
 
OK.  At long last we have done the impossible.  We've found Nancy Brown.  We talked with Nancy the other evening.  Over the telephone, Nancy comes across as being the same outgoing personality she always was when we all knew her. She lives in southern California after living in several locations around the country, most recently in Atlanta GA and Park City, Utah (where the recently completed Winter Olympic Games were held).  Nancy's first marriage ended in a divorce, but not before she had three children---Steven who now lives in Roselle, IL, Paul who now lives around St. Louis, and Catherine who how lives in Park City, Utah.  She remarried Lou Garippo while her children were very young.  And Nancy now has seven grandchildren, including a set of triplets !  She asked about Beverly Dornoff, so we told her that we would send her Beve's snail mail and e-mail addresses.  We told Nancy that one of the more notable things about Beve's life is that she has six children and eleven grandchildren.  And we told her that Beverly was also living in California and that she indicated to us that she was planning on coming to the York52 Reunion in October.
 
We invited Nancy to our reunion and she said she would have to think about it, suggesting that few people at York would remember her.  We suggested that it was really more than just a few.  Then she added that her Crystal Lake H.S. (boy...were we ever off in initially thinking that she went on to Evanston and New Trier H.S) was holding their 50th Reunion the very same weekend as ours.  So we told her she had a double reason to come.  She said she'd think about it.  We told her we would be at the Hyatt Regency in Oak Brook, IL and that we had a block of rooms available at $95/night beginning Thursday, October 3rd, 4th, and 5th...instead of the usual $220/night.
 
We also told Nancy of the updated Yearbook being made up by Doris Strickland Collins and Irene Morgan Bergmann, suggesting that she might want a copy of that Yearbook when it goes "on sale.".  And we told Nancy that we would give Doris her address in time for the June mailing that Doris and Irene have been planning.  And we invited Nancy to look at our York52 websites, which she said she was interested in doing.  Nancy wondered how in the world we had ever found her again.  We told Nancy that we had a committee that was busy searching for missing classmates and that among others we had first found Marilyn Hersey.  Then we found the 8th grade Home Room 207 picture at Hawthorne Jr. Hi, complete with names, including Nancy's, and Ken Jones then put that picture up on our York52 homepage.  Then the question of what-ever-happened-to-Nancy-Brown came up and someone remembered that Marilyn Hersey lived just around the corner from Nancy on Sturgis Parkway.  Marilyn then told us that Sally Mills, York '53 was one of Nancy's best friends.  So we went to work on finding Sally Mills.  We found Sally as Sally Mills Steine living in Denver, CO.  Then we talked with Sally and she gave us her (Sally's) brother's name and telephone number, indicating that he had been in touch in recent years  with Nancy's brother, James Brown.  After repeated telephone calls to Sally's brother, he finally came through with James Brown's telephone number telling us that James Brown lived in Bartlett, IL ---the very same Bartlett, IL where we later found Robert Cords, York '52,   So we called that number, but it proved to be incorrect.  We then had a hunch that it was off by perhaps only one digit.  So we went to superpages.com, and searched for all the James Brown's living in Bartlett, IL...but none of them had a phone number anything like the one Sally's brother had given us.  So we broadened the search to include "surrounding areas".  You can imagine how many "James Brown's" we had to look at before we found a phone number that was close to the one Sally's brother had given us...and we were right, it was exactly one digit off, and he didn't live in Bartlett, IL. either  Here's the real James Brown I needed to talk to: (NOTE: At Nancy's request, James' exact address and phone number have been edited out prior to publication of this story at the York52 website)...
 
James A. Brown 
xxxxxx Street, xxxxx, IL nnnnn
(xxx) yyy - zzzz
 
We then called James and had a nice conversation with him.  We identified who we were and that we wanted Nancy's telephone number.  At first, he was incredulous, being very protective of Nancy.  And incidentally, James told us he was nine years younger than Nancy.  So we talked some more.  We threw out some names, and then he threw out some names.  Some of the names he threw out we didn't recognize and we told him so.  Then he threw out the name Charmaine Smith and we said yes...adding the observation that she was always the smallest kid in the class.  That did it.  He knew we were who we said we were and so gave us Nancy's telephone number without further hesitation.  Incidently, as it turned out, we later learned that Charmaine Smith, like Sally Mills,  was also a close friend of Nancy's.   We then called Nancy several times over a period of several days...each time we got Nancy's voice, which we recognized immediately--despite the passage of some 50 years (some things just never change)--on a recorded message that said she and Lou were not available...leave a message.  At first we thought maybe she was intimidated by a wireless call coming in from VA on her caller ID...so we finally identified who we were ...but still no answer.  Then just the other evening, BINGO...we called again and Nancy answered the phone and explained that she and Lou had been out of town (they had been to Illinois as a matter of fact) for the past couple of weeks.  After our conversation, we sent Nancy all the website citations and asked her one final question...did she want to be found ?  And that if she did, we would need her complete mailing address to get her on Doris Strickland Collins' list.  A few days went by and Nancy came back with a resounding yes...she was glad that we had found her.
 
So here are Nancy's current name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.....
 
Mrs. Louis A. Garippo
1620 Via Inspirar
Lake San Marcos, CA 92069
telephone: 760-510-6861
e-mail:  lagnag@yahoo.com
 
And then we sent Doris Strickland Collins, York '52, the usual bare-bones version of all this...just Nancy's name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
 
 
*********************************************************************
Connie Wolfe Irish, York '52
 
(NOTE: publication of this search story at our York52 website was approved by Connie)
 *********************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee 
To: Info@goldencochamber.org
CC:  Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 4:25 PM
Subject: Jefferson County Title Search: 8485 W. 38th Ave, Wheat Ridge, CO

Hello.  We are a search committee trying to find a York High School (Elmhurst, IL) classmate of ours named Connie (Constance) Wolfe.  We're holding a 50th reunion later this year and Connie is on our list of missing persons.
 
We last heard from Connie in 1962 (our 10th reunion).  Connie's married name at that time was Connie (Constance) Olander and she listed her address as 8485 W. 38th Ave, Wheat Ridge, CO.  We need Connie's husband's full name...first name + middle name or middle initial...in order to conduct further searches on the Internet at the customary people-search websites.
 
The only way we're going to get Connie's husband's full name is to do a title search of their Wheat Ridge, CO address.  So we got on the Jefferson County, CO Assessor's website and did an on-line title search for the Olander's last known address in Wheat Ridge, CO and this is what we found out.  The Jefferson County's property records were computerized in 1977.  Hence there are no property records available on-line before 1977.  In 1977 the property at 8485 W. 38th Ave in Wheat Ridge CO was owned by Dennis M. Searles and Carol P. Searles (Jefferson County Schedule # 025746, Parcel ID # 39-224-00-063).  The current owners of this property are Susan K, and Charles W. Meyers and they bought this same property on October 29, 2001.
 
We then telephoned the Jefferson County Assessor's office (303-271-8600) and talked to a Jefferson County Assessor Office employee.  She said that the only way to find out the full names of the owners of this property back in 1962 was to come to the Jefferson County Assessor's Office at 100 Jefferson County Parkway in Golden CO and perform a pre-1977 manual title search.  Since none of our committee lives anywhere near Golden, CO it would be impossible for us to do this.  But, we would be willing to pay someone a modest sum---say $25--- to do this for us, but we hope you understand that our 50th Reunion class treasury just can't afford to pay a title company or a real estate agent in the Golden area for a professional title search just to find one of our missing classmates.
 
Can you help us ?  One thought we had is if someone in your office had a high school teen-ager that for $25 might be interested in going to the Assessor's Office and learn how one goes about searching past records to determine who owned property and when they owned it---kind of like a civics project for which they would get paid to do.  We're sure that whoever wanted to do such a title search would get plenty of help from the personnel at the Assessor's Office once they got there, so it shouldn't be that difficult a job to do.
 
Please let us know what you think and we am interested in any other alternatives you might suggest.  Thank you for your time.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: xxxxxxx@xxx.com (edited out for publication purposes)
To: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
Fwd To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 10:38 PM
Subject: Connie Wolf--Olander


> My name is Dan XXXX (name edited out for publication purposes)
  & I am a volunteer at the Golden Chamber of Commerce. I
> read your e-mail with interest and will try to help if I can.   I checked the
> West side(Denver) phone book and found only one listing for an Olander (
> Initital W). The phone number is 303-984 1395. I called the number and got an
> answering machine.Maybe you may want to call this number some evening . It
> may be a dead end but who knows.
>
> I live only a few blocks from the seat of power in Jefferson county and will
> be contacting the assesors office tomorrow, Tuesday. I will drop you an
> E-mail and let you know the results.
>
> Good hunting   Dan XXXX (name edited out for publication purposes)
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: : xxxxxxx@xxx.com (edited out for publication purposes)
Fwd To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: Connie Wolf--Olander

> Thank you so much for your response to our e-mail about helping us find more
> information about Connie (Wolfe) Olander, York H.S. '52.  We really
> appreciate anything you can do for us.  And thanks for finding a W. Olander
> in the West Denver telephone directory at 303-984-1395.  We tried calling
> that number, left message that we would call back... but in checking for a W.
> Olander in Denver on the usual Internet people search websites, we think that
> W. Olander number you found should be 303-984-1399.  In any event, we also
> called the latter number and left a message that we would call back as well.
>
> However, we continue to think that our best lead in finding Connie is to know for certain the full name
> of Connie's husband as it appears on their deed to their Wheat Ridge
> property back in 1962.  We really appreciate whatever you can do for us in
> this regard, and wish you good luck over at the Jefferson County Assessor's
> Office.
>

>
----- Original Message -----
From: : xxxxxxx@xxx.com (edited out for publication purposes)
To: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
Fwd To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 6:46 PM
Subject: Re: Connie Wolf--Olander

> Hello again.
>
> Spent about an hour looking through dusty records at Jefferson County
> Assesors office office. Noted below is what I found:
>
> The property at 8485 w 38th Ave.,Wheatridge was purchased by Harvey C. & R.M.
> Olander on July 20th , 1948. The title remained in Harvey & R.M.s name until
> January 29, 1968. The new title owner was Ruth M Olander. Connie's name did
> not appear on any of the paperwork that I saw. Were these the parents ofher
> husband?
>
> I hope the above information is helpful to you. Wish you luck in your search
> and if you think I can help any further drop me an e-mail on what you want
> done
>
> Dan XXXX (edited out for publication purposes)
> 
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: : xxxxxxx@xxx.com (edited out for publication purposes)
Fwd To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 9:29 PM
Subject: Search for Connie (Wolfe) Olander

> Thank you so much for your efforts, Dan.  You certainly gave us some very
> useful information that we simply could not have gotten any other way.  The
> name, Ruth M. Olander, has come up before in our search for our classmate,
> Connie (Wolfe) Olander.  Sometime ago one of our search team members
> searched the SSDI (Social Security Death Index that is available at no
> charge on the Internet at ancestry.com) for all the Olander's whose last
> known residence before their death was Wheat Ridge, CO and found the name
> Ruth M. Olander--see below.  We never did pursue that lead at the time, but the
> information you found today by looking at the original recorded Jefferson
> County deeds for the address our Connie gave us in 1962 suggests that we do
> indeed have to redirect our attention to the trail left by Ruth M. Olander,
> who may well have been the mother-in-law of our Connie Wolfe....the
> property having appeared first in the husband/wife names of Harvey C. and
> R.M. Olander on July 20, 1948...then becoming simply Ruth M. Olander's
> property on January 29, 1968, which apparently is the date of death of
> Ruth's husband, Harvey C. Olander.  Perhaps Connie's husband was the son
> of Harvey C.& Ruth M. Olander...and their son and his wife, Connie, first
> lived with his parents in 1962 at their home at 8485 W. 38th Ave., Wheat
> Ridge, CO.   This is, of course, a much needed, critical piece of
> information without which any continued search for our Connie would continue
> to be as aimless as it has been to-date.  Needless to say, we are extremely
> grateful to you, and as promised in my earlier e-mail, we will be sending a
> check for $25 in your name in care of the Golden, CO Chamber of Commerce
> address that appears on the Internet.  Please accept this check as a token
> of our sincere appreciation and thanks again for your wonderful and
> spontaneous help that you so generously gave us.
>
Per SSDI at ancestry.com:
 
RUTH OLANDER
  SSN 523-09-0652
Residence:
80033  Wheat Ridge, Jefferson, CO
  Born 23 Feb 1904
Last Benefit: 80229  Denver, Adams, CO
  Died May 1977
Issued: CO (Before 1951)
 
 
HARVEY C OLANDER
  SSN 523-20-5404
Residence: 80210  Denver, Denver, CO
  Born 10 Feb 1908  
  Died 9 Aug 1994
Issued: CO (Before 1951)
 

----- Original Message -----
From: : xxxxxxx@xxx.com (edited out for publication purposes)
To: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
Fwd To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: Follow-up on Connie (Wolfe) Olander

> Howdy.
>
> I am glad that your search has successfuly ended and hope that you have a
> great 50th reunion. I did not go searching the Jeffco assesors office for the
> $25.00 check. It was fun helping you out.When I receive the check I will just
> tear it up and put in in the ashcan. Use the $25.00 to buy your search
> committee a good shot of Irish whisky at the reunion.
>
> Best tegards
>
> Dan XXXX (name edited out for publication purposes)
>
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 12:44 AM
Subject: Re: Results of title search of Wheat Ridge, CO property

And so the journey continues for Connie Wolfe Olander....but we do have some direction now.  We need to discover the names of the descendents of...you guessed it...Ruth M. Olander and her husband, Harvey C. Olander,  who probably were  Connie's mother and father in-laws....see results of title search of Wheat Ridge, CO property (completed by Dan XXXX, volunteer of Golden CO Chamber of Commerce ).  As you will see in our last e-mail to Dan, we suggested that the reason Ruth got sole title to the Wheat Ridge property in 1968 was because her husband, Harvey must have died before Ruth died....WRONG...see the date of deaths of both Ruth and Harvey immediately below as reported by SSDI on ancestry.com....

,RUTH OLANDER
  SSN 523-09-0652
Residence:
80033  Wheat Ridge, Jefferson, CO
  Born 23 Feb 1904
Last Benefit: 80229  Denver, Adams, CO
  Died May 1977
Issued: CO (Before 1951)
 
 
HARVEY C OLANDER
  SSN 523-20-5404
Residence: 80210  Denver, Denver, CO
  Born 10 Feb 1908  
  Died 9 Aug 1994
Issued: CO (Before 1951)

.
So what we need to do now is focus on finding Harvey C. Olander's obituary dated in August, 1994 and discover the names and whereabouts of his surviving descendents, especially his son who we suspect may well be Connie Wolfe's husband.
 
 
 
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 12:56 AM
Subject: BINGO Harvey
> We just found the obituary of Harvey C. Olander at the Denver Post website as follows:
> (NOTE the interesting information about his two sons)----
>
> READ ON
>
> Harvey C. Olander
>
>                  Civil engineer, 86
>
>                  Harvey C. Olander of Denver, a civil engineer, died Aug.
> 9. He was 86.
>
>                  Services were Friday at Central Presbyterian Church.
> Interment was in
>                  Crown Hill Cemetery.
>
>                  Olander was born Feb. 10, 1908, in Denver and graduated
> from North High
>                  School and the University of Colorado. On June 15, 1969,
> he married
>                  Martha T. Hill in Denver.
>
>                  He was a civil engineer at the Bureau of Reclamation for
> more than 30 years.
>                  He received a citation from the U.S. Interior Department
> for his contributions
>                  to highway and bridge design, including the Glen Canyon
> Bridge in Arizona
>                  and the Canadian River Aqueduct.
>
>                  He was a member of Central Presbyterian Church. He enjoyed
> skiing and
>                  designing and building homes.
>
>                  He is survived by his wife; two sons, Harvey, Colorado
> Springs, and Robert,
>                  Arvada; seven grandchildren; and six
>
>                  great-grandchildren.
>
>                  Contributions may be made in Olander's name to Central
> Presbyterian
>                  Church, 1660 Sherman Blvd., Denver 80203.

 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:58 AM
Subject: The end of the journey...finally

We conclude from Harvey C. Olander's obituary that apparently Ruth and Harvey got divorced in 1968 when Ruth took sole title to the Wheat Ridge property, then Harvey C. Olander re-married a Martha T. Hill in Denver on 6-15-69.  So now, to find Connie, we have narrowed the search to Harvey's two sons--Harvey Jr. of Colorado Springs, CO (at least as of 1994) and Robert of Arvada. CO (at least as of 1994).
 
But if you recall, even before we had Harvey C. Olander's obituary in hand, we had already blindly searched for common first names like Robert Olander and we actually did talk to a Robert Olander living in Arvada, CO.  Here's the gist of that telephone conversation:
 
In talking with with the 71-year old Robert G. Olander of ARVADA, CO, he said "he had no idea of any Connie Wolfe from Elmhurst IL and York H.S., but he wished me luck in finding her."
 
So that only leaves Harvey, Jr. of Colorado Springs, CO ( Harvey C. Olander's other remaining surviving son per Harvey's obituary of 1994).  Our hypothesis is that Connie must be Mrs. Harvey Olander, Jr.  Now we've got two choices...we search for all the living Harvey Olanders in the entire USA starting with USSearch.com or we re-call Robert Olander in Arvada, CO and ask him where his brother, Harvey, lives.
 
 
Rather than bother Robert Olander of Arvada, CO again...here's USSearch.com's nationwide results for every Harvey Olander in the entire USA of age 67 or older:
 
 
 
# Name City State Age
1 HARVEY J OLANDER WINTERS CA 69
2 HARVEY J OLANDER DAVIS CA 69
3 HARVEY OLANDER DENVER CO 70
4 HARVEY OLANDER DECATUR GA 70
5 HARVEY FREDRICK OLANDER CORPUS CHRISTI TX 80
6 HARVEY OLANDER MOORESVILLE NC
70
 
 
 
Our conclusion ?  The Harvey Olander (age 70) in Denver is the one to call.  He's listed by switchboard.com simply as H. C. Olander.  And here's H.C. Olander's address and telephone number (NOTE: H.C. Olander's actual address and phone number has been edited out for publication purposes):
 
H C Olander
xxxx Street
Denver, CO nnnnn-nnnn
(nnn)nnn-nnnn
 
And so, at long last, this journey is almost over.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph Punky Stevens on behalf of The York52 Search Committee
To: Ken Jones @ ziplink , Webmaster, York52 Homepage
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 10:46 PM
Subject: Re: Wolfe--->Olander--->Irish

> We called the telephone number of the H. C. Olander living in Denver, CO.
>But the woman answering the phone at the Olander residence was not Connie.  In fact, she never
> did reveal her identity to us. What happened was this.  When we first identified ourselves and told
> her that we were looking for a lost classmate whose maiden name was Connie
> Wolfe, she immediately responded in a positive and friendly tone. She said
> Connie was a good friend of hers and one of her favorite people. She went to get
> Connie's phone number and when she got back to the phone she said Connie had
> been married to her brother's son (or a cousin ?) which we then assumed meant that
> she herself  was not the second wife of Connie's first husband.  She said
> that Connie had remarried about 10 years ago and that her last  name was now
> Irish and she was living in Denver. We chose not to clarify the relationship
> question. We thanked her and told her that we planned on calling Connie as
> soon as we hung up. She then said she happened to know Connie was at home
> that night. And so she was.
 
.We called Connie and she told us that Carolyne Larson was
> supposed to be in Denver this week visiting and had said she'd call her. Connie
> said she and Carolyne had been good friends for many years while growing up.
> She also said between her 4 children, she now had 4 grandchildren. She
> sounded good and we had no indication that she'd had anything but a good and
> fulfilling life so far which is what we hope about all of our old
> classmates. We sent Connie's address to Doris today.
 
 That about sums it up.  This journey is over.

 
Formerly missing, Connie Wolfe Irish, York '52 's current (3-21-02) name and address is :
 
Connie Wolfe Irish
3596 S. Depew St., Unit 2
DENVER, CO 80235
 
Telephone: 303-980-6746
e-mail address: cirish426@hotmail.com
 
*********************************************************************
*********************************************************************