Nationality Norwegian Name Theodor Haagaas | Children Henriette Bie Lorentzen | |
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Resting place Vestre gravlund59°55′55″N 10°42′06″E / 59.931924°N 10.701681°E / 59.931924; 10.701681 Occupation Educator and private school owner Awards King's Medal of Merit (1949) | ||
Theodor Christian Petersen Haagaas (15 June 1873, Tistedalen – 25 December 1961, Oslo) was a Norwegian mathematician, private school owner, author and officer in the Royal Norwegian Navy. He was a co-owner of Frogner School and Nissen's Girls' School (1913–1918) and founder, owner and headmaster of the Haagaas School, a private gymnasium at Frogner, Oslo that existed 1915–1955. He is also known for the widely used Haffner og Haagaas series of textbooks in mathematics, which was published between 1925 and 1979 in numerous editions. He received the King's Medal of Merit in Gold in 1949.
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Background
He grew up in Tistedalen outside Frederikshald. His parents were Theodor Christian Haagaas (1823–1899), a ship-owner and managing director (1862–1892) of the sawmills of Saugbrugsforeningen, Norway's largest timber company, and Nora Martha Petersen (1845–1887), who was born in Eidsfoss to Swedish-born parents from Värmland of at least partially Forest Finnish descent. His maternal grandfather owned Veden Manor in Tistedalen for some years. Theodor Haagaas was one of the pioneers of skiing in Tistedalen around 1885–1886.
In 1908, he married Henriette Wegner Paus (1879–1942), a daughter of the theologian and private school owner Bernhard Pauss and of the teacher and editor Henriette Wegner; she was a granddaughter of the industrialist Benjamin Wegner and of Berenberg Bank co-owner Henriette Seyler. They had four daughters, among them the humanist and World War II resistance member Henriette Bie Lorentzen. Theodor Haagaas was the maternal grandfather of the civil servant Joakim (Theodor Haagaas) Lystad.
Career
He attended the Frederikshald Gymnasium and graduated with the examen artium university entrance exam in 1891. He subsequently studied philosophy and natural sciences at the Royal Frederick University. He also served in the Royal Norwegian Navy 1897–1902 as a deputy intendant (second lieutenant in the logistics officer corps).
He was employed as a lecturer in mathematics at the private gymnasium Frogner School in Oslo in 1900, and was a co-owner of both Frogner School and its neighbour, the Nissen's Girls' School, from 1913 to 1918. He was the founder, owner and headmaster of the Haagaas School, a private gymnasium in Oslo that existed from 1915 to 1955. Haagaas School was the last school in Norway in the tradition of the Heltberg School of the 19th century, offering a fast track to the examen artium (a so-called studentfabrikk, "student factory"), and was described by Mosse Jørgensen as "the new Heltberg [school]." According to his former pupil Harald Throne-Holst, Haagaas was characterized by a "strong and active sense of humor."
He was a co-author and subsequently the sole author of the Haffner og Haagaas series of textbooks in mathematics, which was published between 1925 and 1979 in numerous editions. According to Aftenposten, he was one of the most well known Norwegian educators at the time of his death.