Leif Johan “Jack” SVERDRUP

Notes:

Leif became an American citizen, a civil engineer, and cofounder of the firm of Sverdrup and Parcel in St. Louis, one of the largest and most important American engineering companies. During the second world war, he served as chief engineer to Douglas MacArthur and rose to the rank of Major General in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Society of American Military Engineers has a Sverdrup Medal named in honor of Maj. Gen. Leif J. Sverdrup, U.S. Army. This medal was first awarded in 1980.

The American Society of Civil Engineers offers the John I. Parcel - Leif J. Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award.

In the late 1990s the Sverdrup Corporation of St. Louis was sold to Jacobs Engineering Group.

In the 1920 census, Leif is single and is a lodger with a family in Minneapolis. The family is the William Hagen family; William was born in Norway and is a minister of the gospel. Leif has no occupation. He came to the U.S. in 1915.

In a passport application requested and issued in March of 1921, he was Leif John Sverdrup, an “honorably discharged soldier.” He claimed that his father was Edward John Sverdrup and that he (the father) lived in Christiania, Norway. Leif John claimed to have emigrated to the U.S. in December of 1914 and that since then he had resided “uninterruptedly” in Minneapolis. He was naturalized as a citizen in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1918. He was now a civil engineer living in Minneapolis and he was requesting a passport to visit his parents. He would visit England, Denmark, and Sweden along the way and intended to depart aboard the “Begernsfjord” on April 1, 1921. He was described as 26 years old, six feet tall, with a medium forehead, blue eyes, a straight nose, a medium mouth, an oval chin, light brown hair, and a fair complexion with an oval face. Professor George Sverdrup of Minneapolis vouched for the identification of the applicant, claiming to have known him for seven years.

In the 1930 census, he and his family lived in Richmond Heights, St. Louis County, Missouri. The family is indexed as Sverdruk. Leif is a civil engineer. Living with him, his wife, and his children is 63 year-old Agnes, mother, and 23 year-old Ruth Bouman, servant. Agnes, born in Norway, may have been Helen’s mother. Leif was a veteran of the world war. Leif had come to the U.S. in 1914 and his wife in 1916.

Collapsed bridge design firm has deep Minn. roots
Minnesota Public Radio
January 16, 2008

The investigation of the I-35W bridge collapse is bringing new focus on the engineering firm that built it. The National Transportation Safety Board said design errors led to the disaster, killing 13 people and injuring 100 others.
Although Sverdrup and Parcel opened its doors 80 years ago in St. Louis, the company's roots trace back to the same Minneapolis neighborhood where the bridge fell.
St. Paul, Minn. — Leif Sverdrup and Ira Parcel are not household names, but their firm drew up some of the most recognizable structures in America, like the Louisiana Superdome. Their Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel was once considered one of the seven engineering wonders of the world.

The Sverdrup and Parcel partnership began in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota. Sverdrup was the son of a Norwegian immigrant. His father was president of Augsburg College. Parcel was a U of M engineering professor who taught the young Sverdrup.

Both had early connections to bridges, too. Sverdrup's first job was as a Minnesota State Highway Department bridge inspector. Parcel was hired to help rebuild Washington's Tacoma Narrows bridge after it blew down in a 1940 windstorm.

But Leif Sverdrup made his reputation literally paving the way across the Pacific for Douglas MacArthur in World War II. He also helped raise his dead cousin's son. George Sverdrup is a retired Minneapolis math teacher who remembers Leif's fame lasted long after the war.

"He was head of the engineering forces in the South Pacific under MacArthur. In fact, after the war at all of Gen. MacArthur's birthday parties at the old Waldorf, Leif was the host. They had those birthday parties for many years."

The connection helped Sverdrup turn his company into what was then the biggest engineering and architecture firm in the world. They designed dams, bridges, the first supersonic wind tunnel and even the 94-foot skeleton of the blue whale hanging in New York's American Museum of Natural History.

"He was just a magical person. There was no other way to describe him. He could sell anything to anybody," says Greg Franzwa, the Utah author of two histories of Sverdrup's engineering company.

Franzwa also wrote a biography of Sverdrup, better known as Jack. He thinks one of Sverdrup's partners, perhaps an engineer named Brice Smith, now dead, may have overseen work on the I-35W bridge. Sverdrup himself was not big on the technical side of the business, Franzwa says.

"He didn't care much for design. He wanted buildings that kept the weather out and the people in."

Only one other Sverdrup project ever made news. A tornado dropped the Chester Bridge between Missouri and Illinois into the Mississippi River in the 1940s.

The bridge collapse this past August revived Sverdrup's memory in Minnesota, as the design became suspect early in the investigation into the disaster. But other connections live on, too. Augsburg College has a hall named for the family. The Depression-era Division Street bridge in Faribault was designed by Sverdrup engineers.
Leif Sverdrup helped run the company until he died at 80 in 1976. The firm lasted another 23 years, until Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering bought it out.

Birth:
On his 1921 passport he claimed 11 Jan 1895.

Died:
SSDI last residence St. Louis

Leif married Helen L (Molly) EGILSRUD on 26 Nov 1924 in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Helen was born on 20 Dec 1901 in Norway; died on 7 Oct 1997 in Missouri; was buried in Valhalla Cemetery, Hanley Hills, St. Louis County, Missouri. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Johan SVERDRUP was born on 23 Apr 1926 in Hennepin County, Minnesota; died on 15 May 2002 in Missouri; was buried in Valhalla Cemetery, Hanley Hills, St. Louis County, Missouri.
2. Ralph Lee SVERDRUP was born in 1928 in New York; died in 1952; was buried in Valhalla Cemetery, Hanley Hills, St. Louis County, Missouri.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Lutheran Minister
• Baptism: 19 Aug 1861, Balestrand, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway

Notes:

Johan Edvard Sverdrup (1866-1923) was teaching at the adult school at Sogndal at the time that Harald was born. Johan Edward and his four brothers were ministers of the State Church of Norway (Lutheran). In 1894 Johan Edward became minister in the island district of Solund, about 40 miles north of Bergen. After that, Johan Edward moved to Rennsö near Stavanger. In 1908 he became professor of church history in Oslo, where he died in 1923.

Johan married Maria VALLAN. Maria was born on 6 Nov 1866 in Norderhov, Buskerud, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Agnes.

Died when Harald was still a child. Her family was related to the Grieg family.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Pastor

Notes:

In the 1865 census, Harald and his family (except Georg who is studying in Bergen) live on the Lunde farm in Balestrand. Harald’s occupation is Sognepræst Stortingsmd. The family has two servants living with them.

Member of Norway’s Parliament 1851-1873. He also was involved in many enterprises, from fruit growing to banking to shipping.

Birth:
Jarlsberg

Harald married Caroline Metella SUR on 4 Jul 1844. Caroline was born on 24 Jun 1816 in Slidre i Valdres, Oppland, Norway; died on 27 May 1903 in Balestrand, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Last name also spelled Suur.

Could not find her in the Slidre birth record.

Notes:

Jacob became an expert in land management and established the first agricultural school in Norway.

Birth:
På Laugen

Jacob married Jean Gundelle Birgitte SCHANCH on 19 Aug 1802. Jean was born on 1 Feb 1780 in Norway; died on 22 Dec 1820 in Jarlsberg Sems, Vestfold, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
Rudersdal?