Early Years
Dr. Theodore Theodorsen was born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1897 to parents Ole Christian Theodorsen, a chief engineer in the Norwegian merchant marine, and his wife Andrea Larsen. He was the oldest of six children. At one point Theodore’s father had taken examinations for a merchant marine engineer's license. He was the only applicant who correctly answered a particularly difficult question. To his father’s surprise his then twelve year old son was also able to solve the problem.
At age sixteen, after finishing compulsory schooling, Theodorsen attended gymnasium (equivalent in the USA to senior high school-junior college) in the nearby town of Larvik. If certain grade levels were attained one would gain a scholarship to university. Norway was then far ahead of most nations in the liberalization of education. Theodorsen's grades were so outstanding that he was admitted to the leading engineering university in Norway, the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim. In those days there were no dormitories; students rented rooms in private homes. Many of the professors in those days were German or English, therefore a student at the university had to be familiar with all three languages. Only in mechanical drawing was his grade less than perfect. In those days anyone who achieved perfect grades would receive the honor of an introduction to the King of Norway.
Read more about this topic: Theodore Theodorsen
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“If you are willing to inconvenience yourself in the name of discipline, the battle is half over. Leave Grandma’s early if the children are acting impossible. Depart the ballpark in the sixth inning if you’ve warned the kids and their behavior is still poor. If we do something like this once, our kids will remember it for a long time.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)
“Wondrous hole! Magical hole! Dazzlingly influential hole! Noble and effulgent hole! From this hole everything follows logically: first the baby, then the placenta, then, for years and years and years until death, a way of life. It is all logic, and she who lives by the hole will live also by its logic. It is, appropriately, logic with a hole in it.”
—Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928)