Olen Marie McCulloch, 95, passed away on Feb. 12, 2013, at the Heritage Place.

She was born in Minneapolis Feb. 13, 1917, to Theodore B. and Marie “Mary” Engler Steen.

She graduated from West High School in 1935 in Minneapolis, and attended Sioux Falls College in South Dakota for two years where she became a registered medical X-ray technician. After two years of training at Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis she took her first job at the old Thornton Hospital in Missoula.

She later joined the Waves and served as a pharmacist's mate first class in the Naval Dispensary in Long Beach, Calif.

Olen married Wallace E. McCulloch on Feb. 3, 1944, in Long Beach, Calif.  They had met in Missoula. After the war, they both graduated from Bemidji State College in northern Minnesota. They moved to Idaho Springs, Colo., where her husband taught school.

In 1951, it was with great joy that they settled down in Kalispell with their two young daughters, where her husband taught auto mechanics at Flathead County High School.

Olen was an active member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. She taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, served with Adeleine Sparling counting the offering every Monday morning for about 10 years, and she headed the wedding committee for two years. She worked with the Lutheran Adoption Program, keeping the babies from birth until they were united with their new family. She was a Brownie Scout leader when her daughters were involved in the program. She was a member of PEO, Chapter BM. She worked as an election judge, and she played bridge with the same foursome for 40 years.

When her husband retired from teaching in 1977 her lifestyle changed. They enjoyed traveling and later spent winters in Borrego Springs, Calif.

She played tennis in her school days and golf in her senior years. But above all, she loved walking, with friends and daughters; she did some hiking in Glacier Park — the best being an overnight to Sperry Glacier.

Preceding her in death was her husband of 66 years, Wallace E. McCulloch; and an older sister, Lillian Ruff.

She is survived by her brother, Ted Steen Jr., of Minneapolis and his wife, Vivian; her two daughters, Margie Simpson and husband Larry of Kalispell, and Colleen Greenway and husband Hugh of San Diego; her four grandsons, David Simpson and wife Ann Lee of Asheville, N.C., Michael Simpson and wife Heidi of Boise, Idaho, Johnathan Greenway and William Greenway of San Diego; and three great-grandchildren, Alexander and Olivia Simpson and Shaw McCulloch Simpson.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 603 S. Main St., Kalispell. Burial will be in the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 603 S. Main St., Kalispell; or Yellowstone Boys and Girls Foundation, P.O. Box 8087, Billings, MT 59108.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home is caring for Olen’s family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and view Olen’s tribute wall.