Magnus Olausen, Educator And Handyman, Mended Many Things

Whether your car or your singing or your psyche needed mending, Magnus Olausen was your man.

``Mags,'' as he was known to his friends, was always fixing things when others threw up their hands. It took patience, friends say, and an ability to get straight to the heart of the trouble.

Mr. Olausen, a Bainbridge Island native, died Tuesday at a Poulsbo nursing home. He was 71.

Until Parkinson's disease seized his limbs, he was happiest under the hood of a car, easily navigating a web of hoses and belts. He loved teaching others to do the same, whether they were his students in the vocational arts program at Bainbridge Island High School or adults he taught in evening sessions of ``Powder Puff Mechanics.''

Since his teen-age years, when he tried to build a single-engine airplane in his mother's barn, Magnus Olausen was addicted to mechanics. After graduating in 1940 from the University of Washington, where he was president of the Acacia fraternity, he served in the Army Air Corps. He then became a mechanical engineer at The Boeing Co. He started teaching at Bainbridge High School in the mid-1960s and retired in 1982.

Mr. Olausen was a compassionate man who frequently let household repairs go because he was so busy helping others with theirs, said his daughter, Signe Olausen. Yet her father could be tough, she said; in 1980, senior students painted ``We Love You Bulldog'' on the street outside his house.

Larry Pitts, a counselor at Bainbridge High, frequently strolled into the auto shop where Mr. Olausen worked at the end of the school day. The topic of conversation was, more often than not, the small bulldozer Pitts owned that needed fixing.

``But he could philosophize about life, too,'' Pitts said. ``He wouldn't make things more complicated than they were, but he wouldn't gloss over things, either. He'd focus right on the problem.''

Mr. Olausen used the same approach at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, where he was a choir director and unofficial handyman.

Marjorie Nunamaker, a soprano in the choir, remembers that Mr. Olausen never lost his temper during rehearsals - just gave diplomatic direction.

``I just remember it was very low-key,'' she said. ``He turned out nice music with his gentle ways.''

Mr. Olausen is survived by his daughter; sisters Ruth O'Malley of Bainbridge Island and Gerd Saunders of Whidbey Island; and brother Olaf Olausen of Kent.

A memorial service was held at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church on Bainbridge Island. Remembrances may be to the vocational arts program at Bainbridge High School.