Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Thorsen, Karl M., 1957 

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KARL MARIUS THORSEN

FRANKLIN INDUSTRIALIST, RETIRED SINCE 1945, DIES OF HEART ATTACK

   Karl M. Thorsen, 68, retired pulp and paper manufacturer, died in Raiford 
Memorial Hospital about noon on Thursday, October 3, of a heart attack 
suffered earlier in the day.  He had recently returned to his home in Meadow 
Lane, where he was stricken, from a visit to his native Sweden.

   The son of the late Karl and Mary Lundstrom Thorsen was born in Ostersund, 
Sweden, on November 25, 1889.  In 1909 he graduated from Ostersund High School 
and Junior College, after which he went into the Swedish army for a year of 
military duty.  On his release from the army he practiced (was employed 
without salary) in a sulphite pulp mill at Hjarpen, Sweden, in order to get a 
practical engineering background.  This enabled him to attend Chalmers 
Chemical Institute in Gottenborg (Goteborg), Sweden, from which he graduated 
in 1914 as a chemical engineer.

   During World War I, although Sweden succeeded in maintaining its 
neutrality, Mr. Thorsen was recalled to the colors for service in the army. 
Also in this period of intermittent duty as a soldier he was employed by the 
Korsnas sulphite and sulphate pulp mill at Sundswal and by the Cellulosa 
Sulphite Company at Gavie, Sweden.

   In 1917, under the sponsorship of the Canadian authorities, Mr. Thorsen was 
permitted to enter Canada, where he was employed  as chief chemist for the 
Brompton Pulp and Paper Company at Brompton, Quebec.  During his career with 
the Canadian firm he became co-author of a book which since has been the 
principal textbook for teaching the manufacture of pulp and paper in the 
United States and Canada.

   The next year he came to Virginia to accept a position as mill 
superintendent with the Chesapeake Corporation at West Point, where he 
remained until 1925.  Then he worked a year as an engineer with the G.D. 
Jenssen Company of New York City, consultants in sulphite pulp manufacturing. 
Following his he was pulp mill superintendent and production manager for the 
Central Paper Company in Muskegon, Mich., where he remained from 1926 - 1937.

   In February 1937, accompanied by his wife, the former Elsa Amroth, and 
daughter, Mary Ann, Mr. Thorsen moved to Franklin to become general 
superintendent for Chesapeake-Camp Corporation, later Camp Manufacturing 
Company (now Union Bag-Camp Paper Corporation).  He saw to the installation 
of machinery and equipment in the mill, instructed the operatives in their 
duties, and got the plant off to a successful start.  On September 14, 1950, 
he was promoted to vice president of the company in charge of pulp and paper 
production, a position he held until his retirement on December 1, 1954.

   (Mrs. Thorsen died in 1940, at the age of 35, and is buried in Poplar 
Spring Cemetery.)

   A member of the Lutheran Church, Mr. Thorsen was a naturalized citizen of 
the United States.  He was a member also of the Franklin Rotary club, serving 
on its International Relationships committee.

   Always a person of steadfast purpose and apparently inexhaustible energy, 
he constantly impressed his associates in the company with the enthusiasm and 
vigor with which he went at his work.  Much of the success of the mill’s 
operations can be attributed to Mr. Thorsen’s knowledge and experience in the 
art of paper making.

   Surviving him are his daughter, Mrs. B.T. Watkins, Jr., of Corpus Christi, 
Tex., and three grandchildren.

   Funeral services for Mr. Thorsen were conducted from the residence on 
Meadow Lane at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon by Rev. Richard H.L. Vanaman, 
rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

   Burial was in the family plot in Poplar Spring Cemetery.  Pallbearers were 
Hugh D. Camp, James L. Camp, Jr., Samuel D. Helberg, S.A. Lipscomb, Jr., W.T. 
Pace, Jr. John E. Ray, 3rd, Dr. Beamon Story and Eric Zimmerman.

   Among those from out of town who attended the funeral  were Mr. and Mrs. 
Sture G. Olsson and Eric Zimmerman of West Point; Karl Goethner of New York 
City, son of a classmate of Mr. Thorsen in Sweden; and Mr. and Mrs. Ivar 
Eckholm, also of New York City.


Karl Marius THORSEN, retired chemical engineer and pulp & paper manufacturer, 
b. Sweden, d. 3 Oct 1957, age 68, 
interred in Poplar Springs Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 64A*), Franklin, 
   5 Oct 1957, 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Oct. 10, 1957, Sect. I, p. 8 

*Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, 
   Poplar Spring list: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), 
and re-formatted by File Manager. 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/t625k1ob.txt