Gunnar Bøe (20 January 1917 – 9 December 1989) was a Norwegian economist and politician for the Labour Party.
He was born in Bergen as the son of Gunnar Olaf Bøe (1878–1959) and Ragnhild Sæthre (1883–1974). In 1940 he married another Ragnhild Sæthre, born 1917.[1] Between 1930 and 1938, due to the marriage of his sister Karen Bøe, he was a brother-in-law of Halvard Manthey Lange and uncle of Even Lange.[2]
He became a member of the board of the Labour Party in Bergen already from 1934 to 1936. His father held a doctorate in medicine, but Bøe enrolled in economics studies at the University of Oslo in 1936 and graduated with the cand.oecon. degree in 1940. He was hired in the Norwegian Price Directorate in he same year, but as Norway was invaded by Germany, he fought against the invaders in the Norwegian Campaign and became a member of Milorg.[3] From 1942 to 1945 he was imprisoned by the Nazi authorities, first in Grini concentration camp from July 1942 to December 1943, then in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until the war's end.[4] At the liberation in 1945 he became a secretary for Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen.[1] He was named to the Economic Coordination Council in 1945, and the Money and Finance Council in 1946. In August 1946 he was appointed as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.[3]
He left the State Secretary position in January 1948, and instead continued his research career.[1] He was a researcher and research fellow at the University of Oslo from 1948 to 1952, and at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1952 to 1955.[3] In 1955 he published his thesis Ren profitt under fri konkurranse,[1] earning the dr.philos. degree in 1956. The same year he became a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, having worked one year as a technical advisor for the United Nations Commissioner for Europe. From 9 April 1959 to 1 September 1962 he served as the Norwegian Minister of Pay and Prices,[3] but after this he left politics for good. He resumed his academic career, becoming deputy rector at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1964 to 1967 and rector from 1969 to 1972. He had a rather small production of academic books and articles during his professor career.[1]
Bøe was also a member of the NTNF research council from 1946 to 1947, of the board of directors of the Bank of Norway from 1947 to 1953, NAVF from 1957 to 1963 and 1974 to 1981 and Postverket from 1969 to 1972. He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters from 1958 and the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences from 1964.[3] He died in December 1989 in Trondheim.[1]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gunnar Bråthen |
Norwegian Minister of Pay and Prices 1959–1962 |
Succeeded by Karl Trasti |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Arne Selberg |
Rector of the Norwegian Institute of Technology 1969–1972 |
Succeeded by Johannes Moe |