Brooke Putnam Olsen

 

CUMBERLAND - Brooke Putnam Olsen, 21, of Cumberland Foreside died Tuesday at the Maine Medical Center of injuries sustained in a June 8 automobile accident on Chebeague Island.

Born in Portland, daughter of Frank C. and Geraldine Vaux Olsen, she attended Greely Elementary School, North Yarmouth Academy and Greely High School, where she graduated in 1994. She attended the University of Oregon and Fort Lewis (Colo.) College before transferring to the University of Maine, where she majored in marine biology. Miss Olsen would have entered her junior year to study at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

Family members and friends described her as independent, spirited and curious, with a true love of the sea. She recently received a nationally recognized summer research internship at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole.

In a letter, one of Miss Olsen's instructors, Professor Mark Tupper, wrote that she was the best undergraduate student he'd advised and the kind of student that made him become a teacher.

Miss Olsen was an enthusiastic advocate for environmental concerns, and followed the philosophy of numerous environmental groups. She also had an interest in Amnesty International and Women United for Peace and Justice.

For the past four summers, she had worked the sterns of lobster vessels. She also enjoyed hiking, boating, running and organic farming.

Surviving are her father of Cumberland Foreside; her mother of Alexandria, Va.;' two brothers, Mark of Chebeague Island and Kirk Olsen of Cumberland.

Visiting hours will be form 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 pm. Saturday at Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home, 199 Woodford St., Portland. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in Woodfords Congregational Church, 202 Wood ford St., Portland. The Rev. Donald Hodgson will officiate.

 

(Copied from the Portland Press Herald, June 26, 1997 )