Sielaff, Theodore J. (Theodore John), 1920-

The paper was researched by graduate students in the Division of Business, San Jose State College, under the direction of Dr. T.J. Sielaff, Professor of Business. It was sponsored by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.

Theodore J. ("Ted") Sielaff was born in Livingston, Montana on December 11, 1920. He was the younger of two sons born to Otto Richard Sielaff (1887-1965) and Nellie Victoria (Anderson) Sielaff (1884-1974). Otto Sielaff was a traveling salesman for G. Sommers & Co., a St. Paul-based wholesaling and general merchandising company. In 1920 he operated the Sielaff Variety Store in Livingston. The elder Sielaff closed the variety store in 1926 and moved the family first to Glendive and later to Billings, Montana. They moved to Minneapolis in 1933 in order that Theodore's brother Richard Otto (1915-1999) could attend the University of Minnesota. Otto Sielaff was able to get a Twin Cities-area sales territory from G. Sommers & Co.

Ted Sielaff graduated from John Marshall High School, Minneapolis in 1938, and went on to study at the University of Minnesota. Around 1940 Otto Sielaff quit G. Sommers & Co. and started his own small wholesale dry goods business which he operated out of the family garage.

Ted Sielaff registered as a conscientious objector during World War II. He earned a BS degree (1942), an MA degree (1944), and a Ph.D. degree (1951) from the University of Minnesota. He spent his teaching career at Macalester College (1943-1954) and at San Jose State College (1954-1990). He also taught at the East China Petroleum Institute at Dongying (five weeks in 1983), Wuxi Textile Management University (Wuxi; four weeks in 1987), and at Högskolan i Växjö (Växjö, Sweden; three months in 1991 and three months in 1992). Sielaff was president and owner of the Lansford Publishing Company, a publisher of educational materials sold to colleges, universities, and businesses throughout the world (1962-1982).

Virginia ("Ginny") Finsand was born at Erskine, Minnesota October 25, 1921. She was the daughter of Conrad and Emma (Nyquist) Finsand. The family moved to Fargo, North Dakota, in 1926, where she attended Central High School. She attended Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado for one year, and then transferred to St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota graduating in 1943 with a BA degree, double-majoring in history and art. She taught junior high school in Luverne, Minnesota for two years (1943-1945), and then moved to Minneapolis where she became secretary to Central Lutheran Church senior pastor Elmer S. Hjortland.

Ted Sielaff and Ginny Finsand were married on November 26, 1948. The couple had three sons: John Theodore (b.1950), James Robert (b.1953), and Jeffrey Thomas (b.1956).