Sugar mill engineer Olaf R. Olsen

The son of immigrant Norwegian homesteaders, Olaf R. Olsen was born in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i on the Big Island in 1881.

As a teenager, he completed a four-year machinist apprenticeship at the Honolulu Iron Works and joined Kahuku Plantation, O‘ahu. By 1903, at age 22, his experience at making repairs and overhauling Kahuku’s sugar mill led to his promotion to chief engineer.  

In 1919, Ole accepted the position of mill engineer at Lihu‘e Plantation and moved into a plantation house on German Hill, Lihu‘e.

Three years later, he set out from Waimea on horseback with a party of men that included Kaua‘i kama‘aina Eric Knudsen to measure rainfall atop Mt. Wai‘ale‘ale, the wettest spot on earth. 

At Koke‘e, they dismounted and began a rugged hike toward Wai‘ale‘ale under continuous, heavy rainfall. Only Ole and Eric were able to reach the summit, taking their measurement inside a viewless, wet cloud.

In 1935, Lihu‘e Plantation dismantled its Makee sugar mill in Kealia and transported it by railroad to Lihu‘e, where Ole directed its reassembly and designed the expansion of the mill.  Incredibly, he and his men accomplished the job while grinding operations continued unabated.

During WWII, Ole supervised the blackout of the Lihue mill, completing the work after Army planes flew over the mill at night and spotted lights shining through nail holes.

Among his outstanding engineering achievements was the invention of an efficient mill washing plant using “Olsen Rollers” to extracted trash, leaves, dirt and rocks from harvested sugarcane before processing. He also redesigned mill rollers without keys, saving time and labor. Both inventions were adopted by other plantations.

Ole Olsen and his wife, Fanny, had two children, Thelma and Olaf.  He died in 1966. His posthumous autobiography, “Norwegian Aloha,” was published last year.