Gunnar Olsborg Records

A summary of a Twenty Year Career at Sea Through World War II 1909-2000.

Biographical Note

Gunnar Olsborg was born April 17,1909, and grew up in Seattle, Washington. His immigrant parents originally came from Tromsø, Norway, but first met in Chicago. The oldest of four boys, Gunnar aspired to continue his formal education, but due to the poverty of his family, he went to work in the Seattle maritime industry instead. He first went to sea on a tug boat in 1924 at the age of fifteen and worked his way up to become a mate and eventually a veteran ocean master mariner. He served in all categories of the deck department, transported troops in World War II and, when the war ended, he became a Puget Sound Pilot of ocean going vessels, a position he held from 2 June, 1945, to 1 May,1982. He continued working at sea even after his retirement.

In 1929, Olsborg married Evelyn Torwick and they had two daughters, Evelyn and Sandra. Captain Olsborg served as chairman of the Board of the Seattle Seamen’s Center and was president of the Immanuel Lutheran Church. He was also involved with the Japanese-American Citizens League, and secretary of the Leif Erikson League. He was master of ceremonies at the unveiling of the Leif Erikson Statue in Seattle, and he spoke frequently at Norwegian-American festivals, about the history of the Puget Sound, and about his career at sea. Olsborg also served on the Scandinavian Studies Advisory Board at the University of Washington from 1984 to 1988. His wife Evelyn passed away in 1999, and Gunnar died in Seattle in March of 2000 at the age of ninety.