Left- Society Founders Olive Skindrud, Gladys Martin, Irene and Otto Gilbertson
FOUNDING MEMBER LEAVES SOCIETY
ITS OWN HISTORY
The Society lost a founding member and 25-year devotee when Olive Skindrud passed away Dec. 19, 2000, at age 92. Olive loved history, especially the local history pertaining to her native Springdale Township and Springdale Lutheran Church, and acted accordingly. Coupled with her teaching experience, this love of history naturally led her to help organize the Society in 1975 and serve on the first board of directors.
As the Society struggled with organizing and defining itself in the early years, it was Olive who remembered to keep track of our own emerging history, by clipping news articles, taking photos, and saving program invitations in several hefty, well-ordered scrap books. From creating these meticulous archives of our own beginning, to applying her sewing skills in
1983 to stitch numbers inside of hundreds of clothing pieces during a mass cataloguing of the Museum's collections, Olive could always be counted on to assist in many of the Society's programs, fundraisers, and exhibits over the years. She gave countless family and personal artifacts to the Museum, many of which appear in the current exhibits. Olive sewed at home as well, and gardened, made crafts, and worked on the family genealogy.
Born in Mount Horeb May 13, 1908, Olive was the daughter of Martin and Anna Bang. She attended Whitewater State Teachers College and taught at the Wauwatosa Public School System. She married George Wirth in 1932 in Mount Horeb. George died in 1961. She married Eric Skindrud, of Mount Horeb, in 1966, and together they built one of the first homes in Mount Horeb's Nordic Hills subdivision. Eric died in 1995. She is survived by her children, Robert Wirth and his wife Alice, of Colgate, Wis.; Charles Wirth of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Susan Powers and her husband, Jan, of Rochester, N.Y.; four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and a very special niece, Beverly Brager, of Madison.
Olive's family, the community, and her many friends at the Society bid her farewell at an 11:00 a.m. memorial service on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001, at Springdale Lutheran Church. A private family burial took place Friday, Jan. 5, at Mount Horeb Union Cemetery.