Leed (Mandelid), Olav “Ole”

Olav Leed (Mandelid) was born on April 13, 1916, in Bulken, Norway. He married Elsie Willis on January 20, 1940, in Princeton, BC. At the time of their marriage, John was living at Copper Mountain and working as a logger for Granby Mines. Elsie was at home, living at Wolfe Lake. He died on May 19, 1976, twenty-five miles south of Klappan, BC, in a helicopter crash. He is buried in the Princeton Cemetery.

His family came to the Princeton area in late 1927 and moved to Copper Mountain. Ole Leed attended Copper Mountain School from 1927-1930. 

Ole and Elsie were married at the home of  Mr. and Mrs. John Carlson of Princeton. They started their life together at Wolfe Creek, on 160 acres adjoining her parent’s (Ernie and Hanna Willis) ranch. He worked at Copper Mountain Mine until 1947 and then went in to heavy construction, travelling throughout BC.

The Leed family (Nils and Ingeborg)  built a ski hill at Voight’s Camp near Copper Mountain and formed a club in the mid-1930s. Here, Olav and brother, John, trained for ski competitions. Ole and John were well-known in the local ski circles. John won many ski jump competitions.; Ole excelled in Cross Country skiing and in January 1930 won 1^st in the Senior Boys Cross Country Race (time: 12:28) and in February 1941 Similkameen Championships at Copper Mountain came in 2^nd place in the “B” class cross country.

In 1929 and 1930 , Ole Leed competed in the Annual Similkameen Schools Track Meet. He did well in the shot put competition, winning first in both years.

One of the boys, either Ole or John, also played hockey (1930).

In the early 1950s, Ole and Elsie were living at Lorne Lake. They retired to Kelowna, BC.

At the time of his death, he was working as an engineer in the construction industry.

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