A. Skjegstad

Adolf Skjegstad, who usually called himself A. Skjegstad (11 October 1902 – 27 February 1988) was a Norwegian journalist.

He was born in Løten as a son of Kristian Olsen Skjegstad (1871–1959) and Marie Krog Borchgrevink (1873–1954). He had five brothers and two sisters, mostly younger than he was. He married Petra Røhne (1903–1984), and they had two sons and one daughter. They celebrated their gold wedding anniversary in 1983.

He began his journalistic career in 1917 in '' Østerdalens Arbeiderblad''. He later worked in ''Demokraten'', and was involved in the labour movement. In 1923, when the Young Communist League constituted itself as youth wing of the Communist Party, he was a board member of the Hedmark branch. He later became one of the few to go from a labour newspaper to a high-profile bourgeois and conservative newspaper, in his case ''Aftenposten''. He was a sports journalist, and contributed with a chapter about sports in Eyvind Lillevold's history of Hamar, ''Hamars historie'', in 1949. He was also the editor of Hamar IL's club newspaper in 1928, but this soon went defunct. He especially covered speed skating and orienteering. Representing Hamar IL, he was a board member of the Norwegian Skating Association from 1951 to 1952 and vice president from 1952 to 1953. He also took up active orienteering around the age of 70, and continued well into his 80s. He had co-arranged the first orienteering event held in Hedemarken, in 1934, where the orienteering map was in the scale 1:100,000.

In addition to sports he covered economical and political topics, especially forestry. Books include ''Norsk journalistlag gjennom 25 år'' about the Norwegian Union of Journalists in 1971, ''Skogbruk i Hedmark: Hedmark skogselskap 1901–1976'' in 1976, ''Østlendingen'' about the newspaper ''Østlendingen'' in 1976, ''Skogeierforeningenes faglige virksomhet gjennom 25 år'' in 1978 and ''Norske eggcentraler S/L 50 år: 1929–1979'' in 1979. He chaired the Norwegian Union of Journalists from 1949 to 1956, and was a board member of the Norwegian Press Association. He edited the journalism magazine ''Journalisten'' from 1962 to 1973. He was decorated with the Norwegian Forestry Society diploma and the Norwegian Press Association honorary badge.

He died in February 1988, and was buried in Hamar in March.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skjegstad, Adolf
1902 births
1988 deaths
People from Løten
People from Hamar
Norwegian sports journalists
Norwegian sports executives and administrators
Norwegian magazine editors
Norwegian trade unionists
Norwegian non-fiction writers
20th-century Norwegian writers
20th-century non-fiction writers