Ole Bakken Autobiography

Consists of the autobiography of Ole Bakken, which he wrote in 1990 and dedicated to his grandchildren. The story covers his life in America after his parents and he emigrated from Norway in 1926.

Biographical Note

Ole Bakken was born in Trondheim, Norway, on 1 August 1924 to Gunnar and Kari (Stöwer) Bakken. His parents immigrated to the United States in 1926 when Ole was twenty-one months old. His father was educated as an accountant, but did not enter the business world in the United States because his lack of confidence about his English skills. So the family lived and farmed in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota and then in Montana and Idaho where his dad worked in the mines. In the 1930s they moved to Kellogg, Washington, where his father worked in the saw-mill and lumber industry. Ole attended the one-room school house in Kellogg. For entertainment he played with his friends outdoors and in the barns. He also had chores on the farm. When father became ill when Ole was ten years old, they sold the farm and moved to Everett where his dad started his own cabinet shop. Later he worked for Boeing as an accountant and then as a teacher at Everett Business College.

Ole helped the family by working various jobs. When he wasn’t working or going to school he learned to play tennis and boxed at the YMCA. He graduated from Everett High School in 1942 and then entered the Northwest College of Commerce in Portland, Oregon, that fall. He worked as a candy maker’s helper at Myer & Frank’s department store and here he met Alta Jane Vaswig. They were married in 1946.

He enlisted in the army during World War II. He had pilot training in Toronto, Ontario, receiving his wings in 1945. He was shipped to England for Operational Training Service. The war ended before he was sent to the front. He was stationed in Norway in various places after the end of the war flying ambulance planes. He was promoted to Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Air Force and was discharged when his father became very ill in 1946. His father died a month later. His mother died in 1971.

Ole and his wife Alta Jane had three children. Alta died in 1984. He remarried to Diana E. Borge whom he had previously met in Norway in 1945.