Olson Huff, beloved pediatrician, advocate, and friend to all children, died peacefully at home at Harmony at Reynolds Mountain on July 24, 2024. He was almost 88. Olson was born on Campbell’s Creek in Krypton, KY, the fifth of six children. He is survived byhis wife of sixty-one years, Marylyn Zibell Huff; three sons, David, Stephen (Jacquii Burgess), Daniel (Laura Anderson); four wonderful grandchildren, Katie, Benji, Riley, Lydia; and brother, Lloyd (Merilace Cassini). He was also blessed with nieces and nephews, Joy Taylor (deceased), Sarah Lapusnik, Rose Moore, Robert Bottom, John Bottom, Jerry Bottom (deceased), William Huff, Michael Huff; and a Brazilian exchange son, Mauricio Dotta e Silva, and their families. He was predeceased by his parents, Albert and Manda Huff, and four siblings, Cleta May Leonard, Jerald Huff, Jeanette Bottom, and Walter Huff.
His family moved from the coal hills of Eastern Kentucky to a farm in Salem, Indiana when Olson was 11. He went to the University of Kentucky (becoming a lifelong Wildcats basketball fan!), and taught school a year before going to the University of Louisville Medical School. He spent five years active duty in the Air Force as a Flight Surgeon. He and Marylyn were married in 1963 before he shipped out to remote duty at Takhli AFB, Thailand at the buildup to the Vietnam War. It was there he was exposed to Agent Orange, which led to his heart disease fifty-five years later. Olson completed his Pediatric Residency at what was then Charlotte Memorial Hospital. During his 14 years of clinical practice in Charlotte, he completed a Fellowship in Developmental Disabilities from UNC-Chapel Hill. The family moved to Asheville in 1982 for him to concentrate on Developmental Pediatrics. He began the team-based Olson Huff Center for Child Development and became the first Medical Director of the Ruth and Billy Graham Children’s Health Center at Mission Hospital where he brought many pediatric specialists to Asheville and began the children’s dental program and Tooth Bus. At his retirement dinner in 2001, the Children’s Health Center was named Mission Children’s Hospital. He then co-chaired raising the 11 million dollars for the Reuter Children’s Outpatient Center. Olson was a founding board member of the North Carolina Partnership for Children (Smart Start) and served on numerous boards. He was always surprised when given another award, among which were an Honorary Doctor of Science from UNC Asheville, the NC Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, and the Lewis Hine Award for Service to Children and Youth from the National Child Labor Committee. When he was president of the NC Pediatric Society, he led NC in adopting Health Choice, the federal Child Health Insurance Program. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognized his work as the Chair of the Academy’s Federal Affairs Committee, by stating, “With gratitude for your compassion, dedication, and tireless advocacy on the behalf of our nation’s children. You dare us to run when others would simply walk.”
To encourage children and their families to get unplugged and to explore the outdoors, he worked with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to start Kids in Parks. There are now Track Trails in local, state, and national parks across the country. A visionary, who changed systems, he never lost sight of the individual child and their family. Olson was a man of many interests and talents. He enjoyed classical music, a wide range of books, walking the hills of his Black Mountain neighborhood with his dogs, Strider, and then, Sadie, and digging in the dirt. As a lifelong runner, he won more 5K races as he got older with fewer competitors! He loved hiking the WNC mountains and fishing in the Boundary Waters with his sons. Before his heart surgery in 2018, he completed the 11 hikes in the Swannanoa Rim Hike Series.
A wonderful storyteller and writer, he published two books, The Window of Childhood: Glimpses of Wonder and Courage and Why the Clown Wouldn’t Smile. He co-edited and contributed to the awarding winning Caring for Your Newborn and The Triumphant Child: Two to Four Year Olds. For several years he published the magazine and website, the Sixty Second Parent. He was an Elder at Montreat Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Asheville and participated in medical mission trips to Malawi and to the Dominican Republic. As a person who lived his faith, some said he should have been a preacher! A verse that guided him was Micah 6:8 NRSV. “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Olson demonstrated the strength of gentleness, the power gained from empowering others, and persistence that resulted in good outcomes for the wellbeing of children. He was a loving father, who, in the midst of a busy medical practice, always made time for his boys and who later delighted in his grandchildren. He and his wife were partners who supported each other in all they did. His family, co-workers, and friends loved him as well as the many children and families he touched throughout his life.
In lieu of flowers people may make a donation to the George Masa Foundation, 71 Culvern Street, Asheville, NC 28804.
A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, October 26 at 11:00 a.m. in Anderson Auditorium in Montreat, North Carolina. There will be a reception to follow.
Asheville Morturary Services is honored to serve the Huff family.
See the original obituary HERE.