After a life of service as a minister, professor, university president, ambassador, and statesmen, Glenn A. Olds, former President of Alaska Pacific University, passed away peacefully March 11, 2006 at his home in Sherwood, Oregon. He was 85.

Olds' life was celebrated with a memorial service on April 2nd at the Atwood Center on the APU Campus.

Dr. Olds, served as President of Alaska Pacific University from 1977 - 1988, and was well known as a man who could make things happen and affect positive change in his community and the world at-large. Dr. Olds assumed the presidency of APU when the outlook for our university was dim. In fact, it had been closed for a year and Dr. Olds' job was to reopen, revitalize, and re-accredit the university, not to mention recruit new students, trustees and financial supporters. Dr. Olds accomplished all of this and more by the time he retired.

Glenn Olds was born on February 28, 1921 in Sherwood, Oregon. He graduated from Willamette University in 1942. After receiving his B.D. from Garrett Theological Seminary, Olds was ordained in the Methodist Church and was known for his inspirational sermons. In 1948, Olds received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale and taught as a professor at universities across the Northwest.

When he was 37, Glenn Olds became President of Springfield College in Massachusetts and in 1965, he became the University Dean for International Studies and World Affairs at the State University of New York. In 1971, Dr. Olds became the President of Kent State and was tasked with healing the university after the tragedy that had recently unfolded there. Then in 1977, he took on the challenge of reopening Alaska Methodist University as the new Alaska Pacific University.

In 1987, Dr. Olds left APU to run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat against incumbent Frank Murkowski. He later served as the President and CEO of the Feltzer Foundation and Ted Turner's Better World Society, and returned to Alaska to work with Governor Hickel as commissioner of Commerce and Economic Development and Natural Resources.

Along with his many leadership roles in higher education and politics, Dr. Olds served on the boards of numerous public service associations, chaired the World Federalist Board, and Co-Chaired the Council of Senior Fellows for the Society for Values in Higher Education. Being an author and recipient of ten honorary doctorates, Olds was widely known as one of America's premier public speakers.