V. Trygve Jordahl

Verner Trygve "V.T." Jordahl (Norwegian: [ˈvæ̂ːɳə ˈʈrʏ̂ɡvə ˈvîːtiː ˈjûːrɑːɫ]; October 26, 1898 – September 27, 1984) was an Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) District President;[2] he served as a U.S. Army Chaplain,[3] on the Luther College Board of Regents, and was the ELC Director of Service to Military Personnel.[4]

V. Trygve Jordahl
Family photo of V.T. from 1943
Born(1898-10-26)October 26, 1898
Norway Lake Township, Minnesota
DiedSeptember 27, 1984(1984-09-27) (aged 85)
Decorah, Iowa
AllegianceUnited States United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service1943–1946
RankChaplain Captain[1]
Battles/warsWorld War II
Awards2 Letters of Commendation, U.S. Army, 1945
Other workDirector of Service to Military Personnel, Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1959
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Jordahl was born October 26, 1898, in Norway Lake, Minnesota, as a second generation immigrant from Norway. He retired in Sun City, Arizona. He died on September 27, 1984, at his summer home in Decorah, Iowa. He received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Luther College in 1922,[5] where he had also attended preparatory school. He then attended Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and received his Bachelor of Theology in 1925.

Pastoral career

In 1925, Jordahl accepted a call to be pastor of Central Lutheran Church in Dallas, Texas.[2][6] He was at Central Lutheran for eight years. After turning down five calls[7] over many years from other churches to be their pastor, he finally accepted a call in May 1933 to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Cleveland, Ohio.[8][9]

Military service

On September 25, 1943, V.T. enlisted as a U.S. Army Chaplain.[3][10] He attended Chaplain’s school at Harvard University.[11] His first assignment was as a chaplain on transport ships, which would bring troops to and from battle. His next chaplain assignment was to a Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Alva, Oklahoma, where there were about 4,800 POW’s, predominantly German Nazi’s.[1][12] He received commendations for his work here to establish contact between POW’s and their relatives in the U.S. He also worked to identify Lutheran clergymen (conscripted into the Wehrmacht) among the POW’s in order to establish congregations. His discharge from the U.S. Army was April 28th, 1946.[3]

In July 1946 V.T. accepted a call as pastor of St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church in Bode, Iowa.

Bishop and Service to Military Personnel

In October 1948, he was elected bishop (also called district president) of the South Central District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC).[13] This district was, at the time, the largest district in the ELC, stretching from Iowa down through Texas. He served in this position for 11 years[14] and during this time he received an honorary Doctorate from Luther College.[15]

In 1959, V.T. was appointed by the president of the ELC, Fredrik A. Schiotz, to serve as the director of the newly formed agency, Service to Military Personnel.[4] (In 1960, the ELC joined with other Lutheran churches to form the American Lutheran Church.) The position was the bishop to all Lutheran chaplains in the U.S. military and entailed coordinating all U.S. Lutheran chaplaincy operations around the world. This office was based in Minneapolis and the family lived in Golden Valley, MN.

Career Timeline

Family

V.T. was the middle of seven 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 Daniel Christopherson (known as D.C.) was born in Jordalsgrenda, Norway and his mother, Johanna, was born in Red Wing, Minnesota. She died when V.T. was only six years old. This made V.T. a second generation immigrant. On September 25, 1925, V.T. was married to Norma Resida Johnson at Madison Lutheran Church in Ridgeway, Iowa.[16] V.T. and Norma knew each other growing up since they both attended and were confirmed at Madison Lutheran. The first three Jordahl children (Rodger, Daniel, and Norma) were born in Dallas between 1926 and 1929. The last Jordahl child, Vern Truman was born in Cleveland in the mid-1930s.

See also

References
  1. "Captain Miles W. Kelly's Year in Alva, September, 1944 – September, 1945, By Bruce A. Kelly". Okielegacy.org. Sep 1944. Retrieved 2013-07-16. A January 28, 1944 officer roster mentions there being an American chaplain, the position then being held by Lieutenant Verner T. Jordahl.
  2. "History". Central Lutheran Church, Dallas, TX – Centrallutheran.org. 1968-12-15. Retrieved 2013-07-15. Pastoral History of Central Lutheran Church // July, 1922 Rev. J.M. Rhone // October, 1922 Rev. A. Greibrok // July, 1925 Rev. J.K. Rystad // October, 1925 Rev. V.T. Jordahl // June, 1933 Rev. Allen Nelson
  3. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850–2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
  4. "The military chaplaincy program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1917–1960." PDF Page 304. Naval Postgraduate School Thesis, Author: Lystig, Lawrence J., URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/18204, Date: 1977
  5. Luther College Through 60 Years, 1861–1921, Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), Augsburg Publishing House, 1922, See p. 250
  6. "Lutherans to Hear Farewell Address". Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX). 1933-05-12. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  7. "Call Process – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America". Elca.org. 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  8. "New Pastor Will Be Installed Tomorrow". Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio). 1933-06-27. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  9. Jordahl, V. T., A Biographical Sketch of St. Paul Derived from His Prayers, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1929
  10. "The military chaplaincy program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1917–1960." p. 336 (Table 2). Naval Postgraduate School Thesis, Author: Lystig, Lawrence J., URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/18204 , Date: 1977
  11. "Chaplain School At Harvard University". Texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  12. "POW Camps, World War II (1942–1945), Alva, Oklahoma". Okielegacy.org. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  13. David T Nelson (1961), Luther College, 1861–1961, Luther College Press, p. 239, V. Trygve Jordahl, '22, president of the South Central District, Evangelical Lutheran Church
  14. "Jordahls mark dates". Waterloo (Iowa) Courier Newspaper. 1975-08-10.
  15. Nordic Lutheran Collections, Nortic.luther.edu, See Item #29
  16. "Winneshiek County IAGenWeb".
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