Niels Otto Christensen (1917-2003)

Résumé

Niels Otto Christensen ("N.O." to his friends) passed away on 19 September 2003 in Denmark, after a very full career there and in Greenland. Following high school, N.O. commenced law studies in 1935, graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1942, and practiced law until 1945. He then affiliated with the Greenland Office (Grønlands Styrelse) in the State Department. In 1947, he and his new bride, Birte Kold-Christensen, went to Godhavn (now Qeqertarsuaq) on Disko Island, Greenland, where N.O. served as Landsfoged (Local Governor) for North Greenland. ... In 1950, the position as Landsfoged was abolished because the North and South regional councils (Landsråd) were merged into one council, situated in Godthaab (Nuuk). N.O. accordingly moved to Nuuk as Director of the Office for the Landshøvding (Governor General). In 1955 and 1956, he served as acting Landshøvding. In 1951 in Nuuk, the Christensen family met Trevor Lloyd, a professor of geography at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, who had served as Canadian consul in Greenland during World War II. Professor Lloyd, an advocate of increased contact between Arctic Canada and Greenland, organized an invitation for N.O. to spend half a year visiting North America. Initially he would go with Mrs. Christensen to Goose Bay (Labrador), Montreal, and Ottawa; then N.O. would separately visit Dartmouth College and spend several months visiting Inuit settlements throughout Arctic Canada. At home in Greenland in 1955, the family housed Donn Haglund, a young American geographer. Donn was writing his dissertation on the economic geography of the Nuuk District at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he is currently professor emeritus. This stay was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the Governor and a former Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Arctic Institute of North America. From 1957 to 1962, N.O. and Birte lived in Skodsborg, Denmark, while he served as head of office in the Ministry for Greenland. During 1958-62, he was also a member of the Greenland Law Committee (Grønlands Lovudvalg). In 1962 they returned to Nuuk, where N.O. became the Governor General (Landshøvding), the highest-ranking Danish State official in Greenland. N.O. held this position until 1972 when he reached 55, the mandatory retirement age for all civil service employees in Greenland. Accordingly, the Christensens promptly returned to their family home in Skodsborg (suburban Copenhagen). ... During his tenure (1976-87) as director of the Danish Arctic Institute, N.O. organized several evening courses about Greenland and its nature, history, culture, and art (where Birte, especially, had a great knowledge). He had the ability to connect the right people with personal experiences from active life in Greenland to the Arctic Institute. Additionally he was internationally engaged during 1975-88 as a member of the Board of the Danish Canadian Society. For many years, he was an honorary member and Corresponding Governor of the Arctic Institute of North America. As a member of Comité Arctique International (CAI), he participated in several of CAI's conferences, including the landmark meeting "The History of the Discovery of the Arctic Regions" held at the Vatican Library in Rome. (The conference proceedings volume, Unveiling the Arctic, was published by the Arctic Institute of North America in 1984.) During 1981-88 he was a member of the advisory board of the Danish Royal Geographic Society. The Danish and international Arctic communities constantly benefited from the work and talents of N.O. Christensen, and in turn he received many expressions of honour and thanks. ...