Background
Alf Engen was born in the town of Mjøndalen, in Nedre Eiker municipality in Buskerud county, Norway, the first son of Trond and Martha Oen Engen. He had two younger brothers, Sverre (1911–2001) and Corey (1916–2006), both of whom were also accomplished skiers. As the first-born son of a famous skiing father, Engen was naturally reared to ski. After his father died of the Spanish flu in 1918 when Alf was 9, his mother moved Alf and his younger brothers the short distance to the small town of Steinberg. In 1929 at age 20, Alf and his brother Sverre (age 18) emigrated to the U.S., first settling in Chicago, then relocating to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1931. Their widowed mother Martha and younger brother Corey (age 17) joined them in 1933.
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