Son of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Olney and his wife, Frances Olney. He was born in Munich, Germany in 1947. His family settled in Norman, Oklahoma. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oklahoma in 1968 with a Bachelor's Degree in chemistry, mathematics, and zoology. He earned his medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine in 1973. He further trained medically at the University of California in Los Angeles and at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center. He also researched and studied at the University of California at the San Francisco since 1993 in studying Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was diagnosed with the same disease in 2004 and lived 8 years with it.