Lorentzsen, Norman M., 1916-

Norman Martin Lorentzsen, lifelong rail industry employee and leader, was born in Horace, North Dakota on November 29, 1916, the youngest son of Norwegian immigrants. The family migrated to Dilworth (Clay County), Minnesota in the early 1930s, where his father became a section foreman for the Northern Pacific Railway Company. Lorentzsen himself worked summers as a section laborer and brakeman for the Northern Pacific during high school and college. After graduating from Concordia College (Moorhead) in 1941, Lorentzsen enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Corps, serving as a patrol bomber pilot in the Pacific Theatre through 1945. While in service he married his Concordia classmate Helen Broten (Sept. 20, 1943), a native of Jamestown, North Dakota.

Following the war he returned to the Northern Pacific as assistant trainmaster at Duluth (1947-1949). During the next 20 years Lorentzsen was promoted steadily through the ranks of the NP operations department: trainmaster, Duluth (1949-1953); assistant to general manager-lines east (1953-1954); superintendent-Rocky Mountain division (1954-1957); superintendent-Idaho division (1957-1964); general manager-lines west (1964-1967); vice president-operations (1968-1970).

When the organization was restructured (1970) following the formation of Burlington Northern Inc. from the NP, the Great Northern Railway, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, Lorentzsen was named vice president-operations. The following year he was made executive vice president. Over the ensuing ten years he served successively as president of BN's transportation division (1973-1975); as president of BN Inc. (1976-1980); as a company director (1976-1981); as chief executive officer (1978-1980); and as chairman of the board's executive committee (1980-1981). He also served as chairman of two BN subsidiaries he founded and helped develop: Burlington Northern Transport ( a trucking firm) and Burlington Northern Air Freight Inc. ( an air freight forwarding company). Lorentzsen retired from BN in 1981.

Lorentzsen also served on a number of other corporate boards, chief among them Lutheran Brotherhood, Minneapolis (1973-1982). He also served as a regent of Concordia College, Moorhead (1970-1981) and on the Collegium Council of Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma (1976-1980), the alma mater of his three children, Thomas, Mary, and Katherine. Active also in a number of community service and development organizations, Lorentzsen was a leader in the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce during his BN career, serving as a director on its board (1971- ), its president (1976) and chairman (1977), vice president of its Social Action Group (1973-1981), and chairman of its Project Responsibility Task Force (1973-1975) formed to increase the involvement of business in social problems and cultural affairs.

Lorentzsen has throughout his life been a very active layman in the American Lutheran Church. He is a 1968 graduate of the Advanced Management Program of Harvard University.

From the guide to the Norman M. Lorentzsen papers., 1936-2005., (Minnesota Historical Society)