Olsen, Nils Andreas, 1886-

Chief, Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and insurance company executive. Nils A. Olsen was born in Herscher, Illinois on August 31, 1886. He received a Bachelor's Degree from Luther College in 1907, did master's work at Johns Hopkins from 1907-08, and received his Master's Degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1909. He was an instructor in history and economics at Muhlenberg College, Pennsylvania, and at Harvard University until 1912 when he undertook the management of several farms. Olsen entered the United States Department of Agriculture in 1919 as an assistant agricultural economist, and ultimately assumed the leadership of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. His main duties with the Society included the management of the farm mortgage division. He died in Bronxville, New York, July 27, 1940. He was unmarried.