Talk:V. Trygve Jordahl

Original content

First version of page, which includes some details that might be interesting to family, but not to WP.

Original content: Verner Trygve (V.T.) Jordahl was born October 26, 1898 in Norway Lake, Minnesota. He was calle Trygve or Tryg by family and friends. His mother, Johanna, died when V.T. was only 6 years old. V.T. was the middle of 7 children: Dagmar, Esther, Harold, V.T., Scriver, Nils, and Solveig. V.T. and his siblings were the first generation of their Jordahl ancestors born in the United States, as father D.C. was born in Jordalsgrenda, Norway and his mother was born in Red Wing, Minnesota. V.T. went to prep school at Luther College.

He then worked toward his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree at Luther College and completed it in 1922. He then attended Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and received his Bachelor of Theology in 1925. On September 25th, 1925, V.T. was married to Norma Resida Johnson at Madison Lutheran Church in Ridgeway, Iowa. V.T. and Norma knew each other growing up, since they both attended Madison Lutheran growing up. In 1925 he accepted a call to be pastor of Central Lutheran Church in Dallas, Texas. The first three Jordahl children (Rodger, Daniel, and Norma) were born in Dallas between 1926 and 1929. He was at Central Lutheran until April 1933.

After turning down 5 calls over many years from other churches, he finally accepted a call in May 1933 to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio. The last Jordahl child, Vern Truman was born here in 1934. Beginning in 1943, V.T. served as a U.S. Army Chaplain until 1946. He attended Chaplain’s school at Harvard University, and first served as a chaplain on transport ships which would bring troops to and from battle. His next chaplain assignment was to a Prisioner of War (POW) camp in Alva, Oklahoma, where there were about 4,800 POW’s, predominantly German Nazi’s. He received commendations for his work there to establish contact between POW’s and their relatives in the U.S. He also worked to identify Lutheran chaplains among the POW’s in order to divide groups into congregations. Next, in July 1946 V.T. accepted a call as pastor of St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church in Bode, Iowa. In October 1948, he was elected Bishop (also called district President) of the South Central District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC). This district was, at the time, the largest district in the ELC, stretching from Iowa down through Texas. He served as Bishop for around 8 years. During this time he received an honorary Doctorate from Luther College.

In the early 1950′s, V.T.’s wife Norma bought the 40-acre Jordahl Farm for $4,000 in a closed bid. This farm was close to where Norma grew up in Ridgeway, Iowa. The farm included the site of her Uncle Nils Fjose’s cabin, which is no longer standing. Norma purchased the farm as a gathering place and retreat for the family during the summers. When the property was purchased, the house had to be completely renovated by the Jordahl brothers.

Sometime between 1959 and 1961, he was then appointed by the President of the ELC, Fredrik A. Schiotz, to serve as the Director of the newly formed agency “Service to Military Personnel”. The position was the Bishop to all Lutheran chaplains in the U.S. military. It entailed coordinating all U.S. Lutheran chaplaincy operations around the world. In this position, he was based out of Minneapolis and lived in Golden Valley, MN.

Nasa-verve (talk) 13:56, 16 July 2013 (UTC)