HUTCHINSON, Kan. (September 16, 2025) – Jim Olson took the stage this morning for Hutchinson Community College’s Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series. Jim Olson, former chief of counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence agency (CIA), has had a remarkable career, serving for over 30 years in the Directorate of Operations of the CIA. Throughout those 30 years, much of his time was spent overseas carrying out clandestine operations. At the lecture, he shared what it was like to be undercover, and what he does now.
Olson first described his introduction to the CIA. He had planned a completely different life for himself, and was in college pursuing a law degree. He was going to get his degree, and become a lawyer in rural Iowa. He thought he would find a nice girl from Iowa to marry and start a family with, and maybe he would get involved in local politics some day. He went back to school to get the degree and start putting that life together for himself, when a phone call one day changed everything. The vague phone call piqued his interest, and he met with the person on the phone at a hotel the next day.
When he met with the person on the other end of the phone, he discovered they were from the Central Intelligence agency, and were interested in hiring him. From that moment on, his life had changed course, and the secrecy had begun. He met Meredith while he was training at the CIA, and they got married before deploying overseas together to work as spies together. They traveled to many different cities, some of which Olson is still not able to say, and they raised 3 children.
When the Olson’s moved back to the United States, Texas A&M was creating a graduate school of government and public service, and naming it after President George H.W. Bush. President Bush wanted Jim Olson to be placed at the school to teach, and so the Olson’s moved to Texas. This assignment is the reason that they are no longer undercover. Olson says that normally, CIA officers would remain undercover for the rest of their lives. He spoke about the reactions of family and friends when telling them that they had been spies, and all of their cover jobs were a lie. He said they had lost some friends due to this, and had to work on some family relationships, although he said both his and Meredith’s parents were glad that they didn’t know, as it would have caused them too much worry.
As for life now, Olson says they are still careful, stating that Meredith and himself are now openly known as former CIA, and that there are a lot of people that hate them. He says they are very aware of their surroundings, because there are a lot of people out there that they have worked against, and as he says, “they’ve got long memories”.
Jim Olson’s story is quite interesting, and you can learn more about the details of his story through the two books he’s written, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying and To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence.
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The next Dillon Lecture will be held on October 28th, with Joel Goldberg, Kansas City Royals Television Broadcaster, as the speaker.
