James Murray Olk

James Murray Olk, 74, of Glasgow, Mont., died Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, at his home of a pulmonary embolism.

Funeral services will be held Friday, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Glasgow. The family invites you to a luncheon after the service followed by a committal at Highland Cemetery and a "Celebration of Life" at Sunnyside Golf Course in his memory.

He was born Sept. 16, 1939, in Detroit, Mich., the only child of Joseph and Clara Olk, where he graduated from Cooley High School in June 1958. He attended Highland Park Junior College in Detroit. In January 1959, he went to Basic Air Police School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He was then stationed in the Azores (Portugal), and was transferred to the Glasgow Air Force Base for three years.

In 1962, he married Ailene Dokken in Glasgow, and they moved back to Detroit, where he joined the Detroit Police Department from 1962 until his resignation in 1967 due to an injury in the race riots.

He went to work for the Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. as a budget analyst from 1969 until 1974, and graduated from electronic computer programing while attending night classes. He and Ailene had two daughters, Lisa and Lori.

In 1974, he and Ailene moved the family back to Montana to farm with his father-in-law, Otto Dokken, which he continued to do until his death.

He served on the Glasgow Police Commission and was also a jailer. He served on the Glasgow Schools Board from 1985-1991 and received the Marvin Heintz Award for outstanding services to education from the Montana School Board Association during his term. He then worked for the Glasgow Public Schools as a custodian until retirement.

He thoroughly enjoyed playing golf and loved spending time with his grandson, Connor, on the farm. He also enjoyed playing cards (bridge and whist), bowling, traveling, fishing, and was an avid reader of Stephen King books. He was always looking forward to avoiding the long Montana winters and heading annually to Las Vegas where he and Ailene would stay with their daughter, Lori, until spring.

Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Ailene; two daughters, Lisa Koski and her husband, Paul, of Glasgow, and Lori of Las Vegas, Nev.; five grandchildren, Connor, Dillon and Jordan Koski, Samantha Beitz and her husband, Dustin, all of Glasgow, and Kyler Koski of Columbia Falls; two sister-in-law, Flora Sutton and her husband, Farrell, of San Antonio, Texas, and Carol Wade and her husband, Wendell, of Lewistown; two nieces, Celesta Terry and her husband, Lzo, and daughter, Dakota, of Box Elder, and Suzanne Smith and her husband, Eric, and daughter Scarlett, of Bahrain (Persian Gulf); and one nephew, Jason Sutton, of Morgantown, W.V.

Bell Mortuary of Glasgow is in charge of arrangements.