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Olson recognized for 50 years in auctioneering business

Being an auctioneer might be a dream job for lots of people, but not everyone makes it happen.
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Allen B. Olson has been in the auctioneering business for more than half a century and is still going strong. Alberta Auctioneers’ Association incoming president Don Montgomery presented Olson with his 50-year plaque at the organization’s annual convention held in Red Deer recently.

Being an auctioneer might be a dream job for lots of people, but not everyone makes it happen.

Allen B. Olson made it happen.

Olson was still a teenager when he made the decision to learn how to be an auctioneer. And, while many of his friends were still in school, he hopped on a train and traveled all the way to Iowa to learn how to be an auctioneer.

And he did.

Now, 52 years later he looks back on a career he very much enjoyed and one that he plans to keep on doing for many more years to come.

“I enjoy it, he said. “It’s been a good business for me to be in.”

Olson is a hometown boy, born and raised in the Rimbey area.

Before he went off to auctioneering school, he spent time around the auction mart, cleaning out the stalls and listening to pioneer auctioneers C. F. Damron and Russell Cole.

After his formal training, he continued to learn under the direction of experienced auctioneers such as Damron and Cole.

In 1968 he bought the Rimbey Auction Mart with his father Elmer and brother Glen.

Last spring he sold the auction mart to Sekura Auctions of Drayton Valley, but he continues to sell machinery and real estate through Allen B. Olson Auction Services Ltd.

Alberta Auctioneers’ Association incoming president Don Montgomery presented Olson with his 50-year plaque at the organization’s annual convention held in Red Deer recently.