Theodor Haagaas

Theodor Christian Petersen Haagaas
Theodor Haagaas as a student, 1891
Born	(1873-06-15)June 15, 1873 Tistedalen
Died	December 25, 1961(1961-12-25) (aged 88) Oslo
Resting place	Vestre gravlund 59°55′55″N 10°42′06″E / 59.931924°N 10.701681°E / 59.931924; 10.701681
Nationality	Norwegian
Occupation	Educator and private school owner
Awards	King's Medal of Merit in Gold (1949)

Theodor Christian Petersen Haagaas (15 June 1873, Tistedalen – 25 December 1961, Oslo) was a Norwegian mathematician and private school owner. He was a co-owner of Frogner School and Nissen's Girls' School (1913–1918) and founder and owner of the Haagaas School, a private gymnasium at Frogner, Oslo that existed 1915–1955. He is also known for the widely used Haffner og Haagaas series of textbooks in mathematics, which was published between 1925 and 1979 in numerous editions.

Career

He attended the Frederikshald Gymnasium and graduated with the examen artium university entrance exam in 1891. He subsequently studied philosophy and natural sciences at the Royal Frederick University. He also served in the Royal Norwegian Navy 1897–1902 as a deputy intendant (second lieutenant in the logistics officer corps).

He was employed as a lecturer in mathematics at the private gymnasium Frogner School in Oslo in 1900, and was a co-owner of both Frogner School and its neighbour, the Nissen's Girls' School, from 1913 to 1918. He was the founder, owner and headmaster of the Haagaas School, a private gymnasium in Oslo that existed from 1915 to 1955. Haagaas School was the last school in Norway in the tradition of the Heltberg School of the 19th century, offering a fast track to the examen artium (a so-called studentfabrikk, "student factory"), and was described by Mosse Jørgensen as "the new Heltberg [school]."^[1] He was a co-author and subsequently the sole author of the Haffner og Haagaas series of textbooks in mathematics, which was published between 1925 and 1979 in numerous editions. According to Aftenposten, he was one of the most well known Norwegian educators at the time of his death.^[2]

He received the King's Medal of Merit in Gold in 1949.^[3][4]

Background

He grew up in Tistedalen outside Frederikshald, the son of Theodor Christian Haagaas (1823–1899), managing director of the Tistedalen sawmills (1862–1892), Norway's largest sawmill company, and Nora Martha Petersen (1845–1887), who was born in Norway to Swedish-born parents of Forest Finnish descent. His maternal grandfather owned Veden Manor in Tistedalen for some years. In 1908, he married Henriette Wegner Paus (1879–1942), a daughter of private school owner Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss and Anna Henriette Wegner, and a granddaughter of the industrialist Benjamin Wegner. Her grandmother's family owned Berenberg Bank. They had four daughters: The humanist and WWII resistance member Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas (married to cand.philol. Øyvind Bie Lorentzen), Ingrid Haagaas (married to Dr.jur. Wolfgang von Tabouillot), Nora Haagaas (married to cand.jur. Joakim Rønneberg Lystad) and Louise Paus Haagaas (married to Dr.med. A.K.W. Kutzsche). Theodor Haagaas was the maternal grandfather of Labour and Welfare Director Joakim Theodor Haagaas Lystad. Theodor Haagaas was also the uncle of publisher Henrik Groth and noted freemason and humanitarian Bernhard Paus, a nephew of war attorney Hans Peter Edvind Johannesen, a first cousin of Swedish countess Karin Trolle-Wachtmeister, and the brother-in-law of the President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus and the Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus.^[5]

Aged 12–13, he was one of the pioneers of skiing in Tistedalen around 1885–1886.^[6] A supporter of the Conservative Party, he took a keen interest in politics in his youth.^[7]

References