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Former FSM President Olter dies
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Posted on Feb 17 1999
The entire Micronesian Region mourns the death of former FSM President Bailey Olter who died this week at his home after a two-year bout with massive cranial stroke, it was learned yesterday.
To write the eulogy of one of Micronesia’s giants among leaders in the region would take a whole encyclopedia to satisfy Olter’s long service in public office.
He was a teacher, a worker and a president who gave into the impact of a massive cranial stroke that hit him in the middle of his second term as President of the Federated States of Micronesia in June of 1996. He was sent to Honolulu and Texas for treatment and returned on February 1997 on a special US Military Medical Transport aircraft.
As a member of the then Congress of Micronesia, he was chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, a body that determines the final disposition of Micronesia’s financial resources. He is known among his colleagues as the “sturdy voice of reason” for his cool head in serious floor debates.
Olter is a hard worker and if he wasn’t in public office, he’s sometimes found operating a bulldozer to clear his land for an impending construction project. Most of his colleagues in the Senate of the Congress of Micronesia have eventually become presidents of Belau, the Marshalls and the Federated States of Micronesia.
President Olter’s remains is being prepared for public viewing and final burial.
