Samuel Hermanson Opdal was born April 6th, 1885, at Bergen, Norway. He came to Nevada several years before the war broke out, and made his home in Reno. There he attended the University of Nevada, gaining the respect of faculty, students, and all who knew him. His reputation as a quiet man of good clean disposition, strict honesty, and attention to only his own affairs, made for him many friends in the riverside city. After war was declared he made an attempt to enter the service, but being unsuccessful, he resumed the mining profession, in which he had been trained. In October, 1918, while living at Ely, Nevada, he succeeded in being admitted to the Student Army Training Corps of the University of Utah.

He was sworn in at Salt Lake City on October 7th. The young man served in Company D at the University until the month of December, when he contracted influenza. This eventually developed into pneumonia, and on the 3d of December, 1918, he succumbed to it at Fort Douglas, Utah. His remains were returned to his home in Reno and interred there with every mark of respect by Reno Lodge No. 13, F. & A. M., of which he was a member. He left a name that will ever be held in highest respect by all who knew and admired him. Those who survive the soldier are his father, Ragnvald Opdal, Nygaardsgate 13, Bergen, Norway, and two brothers, John and Ragnvald, of the same place. In Samuel Opdal, they lost an admirable son and brother.