When Minnesotans think of Norway, they typically conjure up old-country images of lefse, rosemaling, and springar dancing. Gary Gandrud prefers to emphasize more current connections between the U.S. and Norway. An attorney with Minneapolis firm Faegre & Benson, Gandrud helped establish the Norwegian American Foundation, dedicated to strengthening business and cultural ties between the two countries. He was nominated for the award by Walter Duffy, a colleague at Faegre.
Gandrud was president of the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, when he began working with Tom Vraalsen, then Norway’s ambassador to the U.S., and Kjetil Flatin, director of Nordmann’s Forbundet, an Oslo-based organization that helps maintain ties between Norway and people of Norwegian ancestry throughout the world. In 2001, the three men cofounded the Norwegian American Foundation. The organization has worked with Norway on many projects, including the gift last September of a statue of Märtha, the country’s first modern-day crown princess, on the grounds of the Norwegian embassy in Washington to commemorate Norway’s 100 years of independence.
Gandrud also serves as president of the New York–based Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce. Notable among its initiatives is the promotion of alternative energy in the U.S., drawing upon Norway’s European leadership in wind and hydroelectric power. In 2005, the chamber helped bring together the Norwegian government and the University of Minnesota to create the Norwegian Centennial Interdisciplinary Chair in alternative energy at the U of M’s School of Biological Sciences. Last month, Gand-rud brought the Norwegian consul general to Blooming Prairie in southern Minnesota to discuss alternative energy with area farmers.
Gandrud heartily believes that the U.S. and Norway have a great deal to teach each other, and not just about lutefisk: “We need to make these international contacts and have much to gain from thinking this way.”
