American attorney, journalist and investigator who co-founded, along with H.P. Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society, 11/17/1875. The paternal figure of Olcott, heavily bearded and Victorian, is often pictured with HBP as they were great friends for many years, even calling each other by the nicknames Maloney (Olcott) and Jack (HPB).
Olcott’s education was cut short by a family lack of funds and he became a farmer in Ohio. He published several books on agriculture and set up a Farm School, a venture that failed. During the Civil War, he served as a signals officer in the Union army. Discharged as a colonel, he took a special commission of investigating profiteers. He then read for the Bar in New York, setting up his own legal practice in the late 1860s.
His marriage turned out to be not a happy one, despite four children and a reasonably prosperous career, and Olcott divorced. He found solace in spiritualism and this hobby began to consume his time. On 10/18/1874, he met Madame Blavatsky in Vermont while investigating a farm family where the three children were having psychic visitations. Blavatsky brought mystery and excitement into Olcott’s life and they became inseparable. Though they lived as neighbors, they were together daily in her cluttered New York apartment, writing and receiving letters from the invisible brotherhood, and entertaining mundane and discarnate guests.
Col. Olcott died in 1907
Link to Wikipedia biography