Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids City Historian Emeritus, served as Grand Rapids City Historian for 24 years and is the author and editor of numerous local history books, including A Grand Rapids Sampler, Grand Rapids, A City Renewed, and histories of Amway, Steelcase, Grand Rapids Foundation, and Irwin Seating Company. His latest efforts include The Gift of All, a documentary about philanthropy in West Michigan, Thin Ice, a collection of stories about coming-of-age experiences in the lives of Grand Rapids residents, and A Michigan Polar Bear Confronts the Bolsheviks, the memoir of a World War I soldier’s adventures in north Russia. He recently completed a Civil War book titled The Notorious Isaac Earl telling the story of Lt. Isaac Newton Earl and the special scouts he led on missions gathering intelligence, and pursuing guerrillas and smugglers in the lower Mississippi River valley.