Stephen Olts was born Oct. 26, 1941, on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Washington Street in Sequim.

He and Beverly Cays Hendrickson are Grand Pioneers for the 122nd Sequim Irrigation Festival, which runs May 5-14.

Olts was quite active in the festival, serving as its director from 1987-1988. He also helped build the royalty float for several years and helped form a group that builds the float and walks with it at events.

He fondly remembers the festival from his time as a boy being in a lot of “kiddie parades” and one of his earliest memories was riding on the queen’s float as a page in the first grade.

After his time volunteering with the festival, Olts said, “Nobody ever thinks that you’ll be Grand Pioneer. (They) never think they’ll live long enough,” he said.

Olts grew up in Sequim and graduated from Sequim High in 1959. He went on to serve in the US Navy for three years and later attended Peninsula College and Western Washington University.

In 1968, he married Jan Kendall, a Port Angeles native and granddaughter of Carroll C. Kendall. The Olts have two children, Amy and Matt, and two grandchildren.

For a career, Olts sold real estate for Larry McHugh and later worked for McLean’s Shoe Store until he began his losing his vision and retired in 1980.

Along with his time with the Irrigation Festival, Olts led a busy life of service including coaching soccer, volunteering for the Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts/Explorer programs, and serving more than 10 years with the Sequim Jaycees.

For two terms he served on the Sequim City Council and for eight years on the Sequim Planning Commission. He’s proud to have served when city councilors agreed to purchase the property for Carrie Blake Park and the property that later became the Clallam Transit Center. He remembers that when he took office, the Sequim city limits only spanned from near the grain elevator to Pioneer Park and his first council meeting was in the former city hall that the current Civic Center replaced.

Since retiring, Olts and his wife have done some traveling in retirement, but he says “there aren’t many places better than Sequim.”

For more information on Irrigation Festival events, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@ sequimgazette.com.