Olin Robert Frazier was born on November 11, 1929, to Clarence R. and Tressie O. Frazier on the farm near Cowgill, Missouri. He attended Baker Hill rural school from the first grade through grade eight. He attended Cowgill High School for three years and graduated from Polo High School in 1947. In the fall of 1947, he attended Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg and graduated four years later with a B. S. In Education, with a major in Business Education.
In the fall of 1951, he accepted a high school position teaching business subjects at Smithville, Missouri. In June of 1952 he was inducted into the U. S. Army and trained at Ft. Riley, Kansas, for eight weeks. For the next eight weeks, he taught Clerk Typists’ School. After leave, he was sent to Berlin, Germany, where he spent the next 18 months as a steno with the United States Military Mission to the Soviet Union.
Upon separation from the military, he taught for two years at Wellington, Missouri, and two years at Grain Valley, Missouri. During the summers of these years, he began work on a masters degree at Western State College of Colorado. During the summer of 1958, he accepted a teaching position at Central Missouri State College with the stipulation that he would stay in Colorado and finish his masters and begin at Central after Thanksgiving.
After a few years at CMSC, he started a doctoral program at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, which was finally completed in 1971. While at Central, he taught for several years and ultimately served as Department Chair of the Department of Business Education and Office Administration. He retired from CMSU in July 1989 and moved back to Cowgill to his parent’s home.
As a teenager, Olin attended the Cowgill Baptist Church and accepted Christ as his Savior at the age of 17. While at Cowgill he served as a pianist for a time. During his teaching career in Warrensburg, he attended the First Baptist Church. For several years, he was a church clerk and played piano for worship services. During his years there, he started taking organ lessons from Jerry Muchmore, the church organist for 37 years and served a short time as one of the church organists shortly before his retirement.
At the time of his retirement one of his former students, Shane Sanderson asked Olin to come to the Oak Grove Bible Church and help out playing the piano and organ. Olin became Pastor Joe’s, right-hand man. He did this for almost 30 years.
During retirement, he served as a camp counselor for Youth For Christ for several years and helped Shane in the office and with the Youth For Christ club at his parents’ home in Oak Grove Missouri. Shane started a ministry in St. Joseph and Olin worked in the office and played the keyboard for youth rallies. When Shane started an orphanage in Guatemala, Olin continued to help produce the monthly prayer letters via email until 2023. These were some of the most enjoyable years of his life.
In the final chapter of Olin’s life, he re-centered his time around the Cowgill and Polo area. He returned to his spiritual alma mater, Cowgill Baptist Church. Olin has loved being a part of the community. He loved dining at the Red Roster and lately Coldwell County Senior center in Polo. He is loved by many for his servant’s heart, kind disposition, and gentle wit.
He went on to be with the Lord on March 27, 2023. He was preceded in death by his parents and a stillborn sister, Nelda Frazier, and his mother and father, Clarence R. and Tressie O. Frazier.
Memorial contributions are suggested to Child Rescue in care of the funeral home. Funeral services will be held at 11 AM, Saturday, April 1st, 2023, at First Baptist Church of Cowgill. There is no scheduled visitation. Burial will follow the service at Hopewell Cemetery, north of Cowgill. Arrangements entrusted to the care and direction of Stith Funeral Home in Polo.
