Artist.
Born in England on 25 March 1942, at the age of three he came to Canada with his mother Margaret Elizabeth Wilkins (1919-1999) and sister Jennifer and joined his veteran father Wancentas “Bill” Olito (1914-1981) on farm in the MacGregor area. His childhood was spent there and he attended MacGregor School. After high school, he attended Teachers’ College then taught at the Gimli High School (1966-1967) before returning to the University of Manitoba to earn a Bacheler of Fine Arts degree.
He pursued an art career that included building a wooden helicopter, building a ferry across the LaSalle River, and performing a one-man show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He compiled The Best Possible Face: L. B. Foote’s Winnipeg (1985), was photography editor for David Arnason's The Icelanders (1981), wrote the novel Atli's Tale (2014), and acted in many Manitoba-based films.
On 27 December 1969, he married Verla Jane Bradley at the St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Fort Garry. They had no children. He owned horses and trained and ran them at Assiniboia Downs. He was a Rhino candidate in the 1993 and 1997 federal general elections.
He died on 25 April 2025.
“Bradley - Olito,” Winnipeg Free Press, 6 December 1969, page 23.
Obituary [Wancentas Olito], Winnipeg Free Press, 21 October 1981, page 79.
Obituary [Margaret Olito], Winnipeg Free Press, 31 August 1999, page 35.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 17 May 2025.
We thank Catherine Collins for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 18 October 2025
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