Vilhjálmur Þór

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Vilhjálmur Þór (German transcription Vilhjalmur Thor ; born September 1, 1899 on the Æsustaðir farm in the Eyjafjörður valley , today in the municipality of Eyjafjarðarsveit ; died July 12, 1972 in Reykjavik ) was an Icelandic politician . He held several political offices and was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Employment of the country from 1942 to 1944 .

biography

Vilhjálmur Þór was born in 1899 on the Æsustaðir farm in the Eyjafjörður valley. He was the son of the farmer Þórarinn Jónasson and his wife Ólöf Margrét Þorsteinsdóttir. In 1904 he moved with his parents to Akureyri and worked there from 1912 as a courier for the trade cooperative ( Kaupfélag ) des Eyjafjörðurs ( Kaupfélag Eyfirðinga , now known as KEA), then as a salesman and office worker and from 1923 as managing director of this cooperative. In 1924 he married Rannveig Elísabet Jónsdóttir. In 1939 he was appointed Icelandic Trade Envoy in New York . From May 1 to September 1, 1940, he was Icelandic Consul General in the United States. On October 1, 1940, he took on a managerial position at Bank Landsbanki .

On December 16, 1942, Vilhjálmur Þór was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Employment in the cabinet of Björn Þórðarson and remained so until October 21, 1944. After that, he worked again in the bank management. From 1946 to 1954 he was managing director of the Icelandic cooperative association Samband íslenskra samvinnufélaga , then director of Landsbanki. In 1950 he became a government representative in preparation for the establishment of a fertilizer factory in Iceland, and from its establishment in 1951 to 1963 he was a member of the board of directors of this factory. In 1953 and 1954 he participated as part of the Icelandic delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations . In 1957 he was appointed General Director of the Icelandic Central Bank and remained so until November 1, 1964, after which he was elected to the Board of Governors of the World Bank until 1966 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. Not to be confused with the homonymous farm in Langidalur, Austur-Húnavatnssýsla district .
  2. a b Biography of Vilhjálmur Þór on the website of the Icelandic parliament Althing; accessed on April 26, 2020.