Obituary of Olin O. Bleau

Olin O. Bleau, 93, died in his sleep on March 12th 2024 at Rosewood Rehabilitation and Nursing center in Rensselaer after a brief illness. He was born on October 1 1930 in West New York, New jersey. At the age of 6 moved to Selkirk where he lived the remainder of his life.

He is pre- deceased by his brother Alva L. Bleau, his wife Jackie (whitbeck) Bleau, his daughter Nancy (Francis) Sill and two great-grandchildren. He leaves behind his children Alva (Lori) Bleau, Martha (Ray) Elmore, Tom Bleau and Renee Grenier, Francis Sill, and Jackie (John) Spencer as well as 86 grandchildren great-grandchildren and four great great grandchildren.

He was raised on a dairy farm and attended Jericho school. Olin was a self-made man who had been repairing cars since his early teen years. He also worked the New York Central Railroad as a conductor for many years. In 1970 he built his ultimate mechanic's garage complete with a body shop and a Towing fleet. Whenever we were out with Dad someone always recognized him as "The Tow Man" and came over to say hi. He had been towing for 63 years. In his early years some had nicknamed him “Ot Oh” because his initials were O.O. Later dispatchers at AAA nicknamed him bunny after the Energizer Bunny because he never quit and he never said no. Even after he sold his business years ago, dad continued to work for AAA performing lockouts, jump starts and sometimes instructing drivers until he turned  90 and retired.   Last year at the Lake George Tow Show Olin was given a Crystal Award that stated "In appreciation of his vision and leadership as a founding father of Estra - Empire State Towing and Recovery Association.  Olin was also inducted into the international Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Funeral services will be held 12:00pm, Wednesday March 20, 2024 at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 85 Elm Ave. Delmar.  The family will receive visitors at the church 11:00 to 12:00 before the service.  Interment will be in Elmwood Cemetery, Glenmont. 

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Breast Cancer, www.breastcancer.org,  or  the Alzheimer's Association at www.alz.org. 

The funeral service for Olin will be livestreamed from the Bethlerhem Lutheran Church's website, www.blcdelmar.com.