Poul Dalby Andersen (April 19, 1922 – May 29, 2006) was a printer who served in the

Danish resistance movement The Danish resistance movements ( da, Den danske modstandsbevægelse) were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation autho ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and later published one of the remaining two Danish-language newspapers in the United States.

Background

Andersen was born in

Ringkøbing Ringkøbing (older spelling ''Ringkjøbing'') is a town in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality in Region Midtjylland on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. It has a population of 9,894 (1 January 2022).

, a small town in

Ringkøbing-Skjern municipality Ringkøbing-Skjern municipality is the largest municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in Denmark. It was formed on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 administrative reform from the former municipalities of Egvad, Holmsland, Ringkøbing, Skjern, an ...

on the west coast of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. His grandfather was a co-founder of the town's daily newspaper. Andersen's father was a typesetter, and Andersen learned the printing trade in the newspaper's offices. Andersen came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1949 and worked on an uncle's farm in Ohio. A friend encouraged him to move to

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. In 1950 Andersen was hired by the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

as a printer.

Career

Andersen was a conversationalist and a soccer fanatic, two traits that helped him as a member of the Danish resistance. "My husband was a chatterbox, and he loved soccer, so he could bicycle down to a neighboring town to play soccer and the Germans would never think twice about it," Judy Andersen told the

. "He would ask the guards, 'What are they doing in the field there?' and learn that he Germanswere building gun emplacements." In 1975 Andersen bought ''

Bien Bien may refer to: * Bien (newspaper) * Basic Income Earth Network * Bień, Poland {{disambiguation ...

'', a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

-based Danish-language newspaper. Andersen moved the newspaper to

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

, to allow him to work on the paper after completing his shift at the Times. ''Biens circulation reached a high of 5,300 during Andersen's tenure as publisher. Andersen continued to use a

Linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...

to set the type for each edition of ''Bien'' long after other newspapers had switched to computerized typesetting. In 1997 the California Newspaper Publishers Association said ''Bien'' was probably the last newspaper in California being printed with Linotype. Andersen was knighted in 1982 by

Queen Margrethe II Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...

for his efforts in uniting the

Danish American Danish Americans ( da, Dansk-amerikanere) are Americans who have ancestral roots originated fully or partially from Denmark. There are approximately 1,300,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent. History The first Dane known to have arriv ...

community. Andersen died in Los Angeles from complications of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersen, Poul 1922 births 2006 deaths Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from dementia in California Danish resistance members Danish emigrants to the United States Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog People from Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality 20th-century American newspaper publishers (people) 21st-century Danish politicians