Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

While in California recently, I learned of the death of Ronald L. Olson, which occurred on August 1, 1979, in Escondido, California, near where he had lived most of the time since his retirement from the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. My purpose in writing this memorial essay in honor of Olson is in part motivated by a desire to place on public record certain praiseworthy aspects of Alfred L. Kroeber's character, which were evident in his relationship with Olson and, to a minor extent, also with me.