Born in Oklahoma and Korea. Olin served as pastor in his home state of Oklahoma immediately after his marriage to Esther on 20 Jun 1924. In 1929 they went as Methodist missionaries to Foochow, China, and in 1939 to Chengdu. During this period, Olin served as an effective missionary preacher while Esther taught music in church-related colleges. They returned to the United States on furlough in 1941, and Esther earned a master of music degree in Chicago. Olin returned to China during World War II, and Esther rejoined him in 1946.
In 1950 Olin was arrested by the Chinese Communist government and was imprisoned in Chungking for two years. There he wrote some meditations or devotional talks with only the help of Moffatt's translation of the New Testament. He also wrote about his experiences on the margins in an anthology of modern poetry, calling it With God in Red China.
Olin and Esther came to Singapore at the end of the missionary exodus from China occasioned by the new Communist government and the hatred engendered by the Korean War. They were "missionary refugees" welcomed on to the Trinity Theological College faculty, where they remained for 12 years (1955-67).
Esther taught English and music (piano and organ), and kept her home open to students and friends. Olin had one message, which he preached repeatedly, namely, that a strong church demanded well-trained pastors. He said, "Our march toward a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating church depended on trained leadership, and that leadership we could produce at Trinity."
The Stockwells showed faithfulness and courage in China. Teaching in two languages in Singapore, they manifested a consuming desire to train Christian leadership for the churches of Southeast Asia.