Thor Thors (26 November 1903 – 11 January 1965) was an Icelandic lawyer, ambassador in the US, and Iceland's first

Permanent Representative A permanent representative is a diplomat who is the head of a country’s diplomatic mission to an international organisation. Organizations that receive permanent representatives from their member states include the United Nations, the World Tr ...

at the United Nations. He was the son of

Thor Jensen Thor Jensen (4 June 1889 – 9 December 1976) was a Norwegian gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The mov ...

, the influential entrepreneur, counting among his siblings the leading Icelandic politician

Ólafur Thors Ólafur Tryggvason Thors (19 January 1892 – 31 December 1964) was an Icelandic politician of the Independence Party, who served five times as prime minister of Iceland. Career The son of Margrét Þorbjörg Kristjánsdóttir and Thor Philip ...

Life

Thor graduated from

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (MR; official name in English: Reykjavik Junior College) is a junior college in Iceland. It is located in Reykjavík. The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains o ...

and was the president of its student society '' Framtíðin'' in 1921. He graduated in law from the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

and undertook postgraduate studies in economics in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

before deciding to work as the director of the family fishing company Kveldúlfur hf. Thor did this from 1927 to 1934. From 1933 to 1941 he was a member of the Icelandic parliament for the

Independence Party Independence Party may refer to: Active parties Outside United States * Independence Party (Egypt) * Estonian Independence Party * Independence Party (Finland) * Independence Party (Iceland) * Independence Party (Mauritius) * Independence Part ...

for the Snæfell constituency. In 1940 he served as the Icelandic ambassador in the US and from 1946 to 1965 he was Iceland's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In 1952, he presented the

gavel A gavel is a small ceremonial mallet commonly made of hardwood, typically fashioned with a handle. It can be used to call for attention or to punctuate rulings and proclamations and is a symbol of the authority and right to act officially in the ...

to the United Nations President of the General Assembly. Thors appeared on American panel show ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'' on 13 November 1955.

References

External links

Biography on the website of the Althing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thors, Thor Ambassadors of Iceland to the United States Icelandic people of Danish descent 1903 births 1965 deaths Thors family