Olaf Virro, 82, passed away on June 23, 2025. He was born on February 13, 1943, in Vändra, in war-torn Estonia, to Arthur Virro, a professor of mathematics, and Valentina Virro, a teacher of German and English. He was the eldest of four children: his siblings, Karin, also born in Estonia, and Eva and Thomas, both born in Germany. His early years were spent in Germany, where his family had fled as Soviet forces invaded Estonia. Following the death of his father in 1953, his mother emigrated with her four children to Michigan.

Olaf excelled in school and attended Kalamazoo College (Class of 1966) on a National Merit Scholarship. Kalamazoo College was also where he met Anneliese Schliebusch, an exchange student from Bonn, Germany, who became his beloved wife of 59 years. One of his favorite avocations was exchanging and solving mathematical puzzles with his life-long college friends. Olaf earned his MBA from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business in 1968. Afterward, he spent his professional career in finance at Baxter International, a global healthcare company. He won gold medals for the highest CPA exam scores for both the United States and Illinois, a feat that earned him the nickname "The Supreme Court of Accounting" at Baxter. While there, he traveled extensively, establishing accounting systems at the company's subsidiaries around the world.
After Estonia regained independence from Soviet occupation around 1990, he acquired a former farm near Tartu and returned annually for five to six weeks, reconnecting with relatives and friends, whom his parents had to leave behind when they left Estonia during the war. After retiring from Baxter in 2000, Olaf and Anneliese moved from Evanston, Illinois to Kentucky, where they had established a home in 1976 and she bred Icelandic horses.

Olaf is survived by his devoted wife Anneliese; his son and daughter-in-law, Eric and Meghan (also a Kalamazoo College graduate), and their daughters, Vivienne and Evangeline. He is also survived by Karin and Thomas Virro, as well as dear nieces and nephews.