I would like to relay a story of a random act of kindness by Dick Johnson. My mother, Lorraine (Metcalfe) Somers, worked as a secretary in the Dunseith School system for 32 years. She passed away a year ago come 4/10. As many know she enjoyed playing guitar and singing. Although she stopped playing in bands in the mid-1980’s she continued to play at home and on other special occasions (two of which occasions she truly remembered with great pleasure: the wedding dance and then the 50th anniversary of Duane and Lorraine Peterson). In any event, one day she was in the local second hand store looking at a mandolin. Dick Johnson happened to be in the store at the same time. Having a fondness for all things Bluegrass, my mother always wanted to learn how to play the mandolin, and she thought it might also keep her 69-year-old fingers nimble. Well, she offered a price to the store owner but he would not come down on the price. She left the store, went grocery shopping and went home. About an hour after she arrived at home, the door bell rang and here was Dick Johnson with that very same mandolin. Dick told my mother that he had always appreciated her playing and singing and that he wanted her to have the mandolin!! I have to say that my mother was never one to cry (many of you know this given her stern lectures and looks when you did something wrong in school), but she cried a good long time after Dick left, and she cried each time she told the story to others. When she passed away, the mandolin and my mother’s beloved Martin guitar passed on to my brother Rob Olson, the only one of the Olson boys who can play an instrument. I want Dick to know how much we appreciated his random act of kindness and to know that the mandolin and the story that goes with it is one of our greatest treasures of a life filled with music.

Lyle Olson
Class of 1975