A biography of and interview about Marie Koenig Olson

Abstract

Marie Koenig was born in Ithaca, New York, when her father, Frederick F. Koenig (DVM 1909) was a faculty member at Cornell University. While Marie was a young girl, the family moved to nearby Jamestown and Dr. Koenig opened a general veterinary practice. Marie followed in her father’s footsteps and became the seventh woman veterinary graduate from Cornell in 1937. After a year working in a small animal practice in Rochester, Marie joined her father’s practice where she performed both small animal and large animal work. She took over the practice after her father’s retirement and simultaneously raised her two children while her husband, Raymond Olson, was stationed overseas during World War II. Ray returned to college after the war and graduated with a DVM in 1957, 20 years after his wife. Together, they build a modern small animal hospital in Jamestown and Dr. Koenig Olson continued to practice to the day she died in 1970, at age 57. Her son and granddaughter also became veterinarians in 1973 and 2009, respectively, bringing the family legacy to four generations over one hundred years.