Okanogan-Yakima County WA Archives Biographies.....Laurgaard, Olaf February 21, 1880 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 19, 2010, 2:44 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 292 - 297
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     OLAF LAURGAARD.  Prominently identified with a profession of peculiar 
significance in the west because of its bearing upon the development of the 
country, Olaf Laurgaard has achieved high standing as a civil engineer and has 
taken a leading part in projects for the reclamation of the arid lands of 
Washington and Oregon. For eleven years he has been city engineer of Portland, 
to which he has rendered service of great importance and inestimable value, 
and is also deserving of much credit for the work which he accomplished as a 
member of the Oregon legislature.

     A native of Norway, he was born near Trondhjem, February 21, 1880, and 
was but five months old when his parents, Olaf C. and Marie Cecelia 
(Leinhardt) Laurgaard, came to the United States, arriving in this country in 
July, 1880. They established their home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they 
remained until 1909, and are now residing in Okanogan, Washington.

     Reared in La Crosse, Olaf Laurgaard completed his high school course in 
1898 and afterward matriculated in the University of Wisconsin, from which he 
was graduated in 1903. There he won the B. S. degree in civil engineering and 
in 1914 was awarded the Master's degree. As a boy he had engaged in several 
lines of youthful endeavor, such as piloting a herd of neighboring cows to and 
from the pasture, selling papers on the street and later handling a paper 
route. This was followed by his service as bell boy in a hotel at La Crosse. 
While at the university he found time to take part in football and track 
athletics, particularly the mile and two-mile runs. His work in baseball and 
football on the high school teams had fitted him to qualify for these 
university honors. His university life was not all pleasure for the ambitious 
youth. Although his father was an expert stair builder and cabinetmaker, there 
were three sisters to be dressed and educated, so the brother was thrown 
pretty much on his own resources, and in Madison, filled as it was with young 
fellows working their way through school, competiton was keen for the jobs 
that produced any revenue at all. Therefore we have the pictures of the future 
city engineer of Portland waiting on tables for his three meals a day and 
helping with a laundry route two evenings a week, gathering bundles of soiled 
clothes for shipment to the Milwaukee laundry and delivering the garments as 
they returned to Madison, all spick and span. But that was nothing to the 
summer that he studied sewer construction at the business end of a pick and 
shovel for a dollar and a quarter a day — days that were full ten hours long. 
Mr. Laurgaard found it necessary to borrow some capital in order to complete 
his university work without undue interruption, so upon his graduation he took 
out an endowment policy to cover this indebtedness and protect his creditors. 
Although the loans were repaid many years ago, the policy did not mature until 
May, 1923. One of his professors offered him an attractive position near home 
at one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month when he completed his work at 
the university, but he saw a better future in irrigation work and took a place 
with the reclamation service at less than half that salary.

     Entering the United States reclamation service, Mr. Laurgaard was sent to 
Okanogan, Washington, in May, 1903, and soon demonstrated his technical 
knowledge and skill, doing much important irrigation work in that state and in 
Oregon. From 1907 until 1910 he was employed in constructing the Conconully 
dam under the direction of the United States reclamation service. This was 
built by the hydraulic fill method and he devised a clever device for 
separating the coarse rock from the finer materials as they were sluiced down 
from the hills to the embankment, making possible the building of a better dam 
at a less cost than by methods previously used. Mr. Laurgaard next came to 
Portland as chief engineer for the Oregon, Washington & Idaho Finance Company, 
acting in that capacity for three years. During 1913-14 he was in the service 
of the state of Oregon and had charge of the Tumalo project, constructing 
dams, canals, etc., for a complete irrigation system, while he also spent some 
time in the Yakima valley of Washington, having been appointed engineer on 
construction of the canal and power plant erected by the Pacific Power & Light 
Company at Naches in 1913. In 1915 he opened an office in Portland, becoming a 
consulting civil engineer, and since July 1, 1917, has been city engineer. In 
length of service his record exceeds that of any other incumbent of the office 
and few men have accomplishd as much. Gaining that superior ability which 
comes through close study and broad experience, he has exerted his efforts to 
the utmost in behalf of Portland, and his achievements have elicited the 
highest commendation and attracted widespread notice. Following is a list of 
the civic improvements effected during his tenure of office.

     Mr. Laurgaard was the builder of the Columbia slough drainage channel, 
providing sewage at a saving of ninety per cent of the estimated cost and 
supplying draining for over forty thousand city lots. Large interests were 
strongly opposed to this project and after a struggle which lasted for two 
years Mr. Laurgaard was victorious. He also installed the sewer system in the 
southeastern part of Portland and thus provided drainage for a district 
containing over sixteen thousand city lots. During his administration 
improvements have been made on the Ross Island bridge and the approaches to 
the various bridges have been widened. Sandy boulevard on the east side of 
Portland has been widened to eighty feet and the main arteries in all parts of 
the city have been widened, an innovation necessitating the expenditure of 
about five million dollars. In addition Foster road and Powell avenue have 
been improved. Another feature of Mr. Laurgaard's regime was the separation of 
the grades for rail and automobile traffic on various viaducts, over twelve of 
which were built at a cost of over one million dollars, and several more have 
been designed. Extra strength rather than bulk characterizes all of the new 
bridges and viaducts, which are architectural gems and have been extensively 
copied. The Engineering News-Record commented favorably and at length upon Mr. 
Laurgaard's special designs and prominent engineers from all parts of the 
country have visited Portland for the purpose of viewing his work. The Vista 
Avenue bridge is a notable example of his ability to combine the beautiful 
with the utilitarian and is one of the city's chief ornaments. He has devoted 
much time and thought to the perfecting of a traffic system which eliminates 
the danger from trains and safeguards human lives. Portland is likewise 
indebted to Mr. Laurgaard for the development of a water front of which the 
city is justly proud. When he came here he found old wooden docks that were 
veritable fire traps with twenty sewers emptying under them. They were 
infested with rats and during the rainy season the high water would back up in 
the sewers. Mr. Laurgaard has wrought a remarkable transformation in the 
appearance of this section of Portland, making Front street an attractive 
thoroughfare one hundred feet wide, rebuilding the docks and exterminating the 
rats. He is responsible for the fine esplanade along the river front, the 
opening and widening of its approaches, the new location of the public market, 
and is now formulating plans for rerouting the interurban cars in order to 
facilitate traffic on the downtown streets. Endowed with tact and good 
judgment as well as the requisite executive force, he has created a highly 
efficient organization and reposes the utmost trust in his subordinates, 
thereby winning their loyal support and earnest cooperation in his campaign to 
make Portland a model city. The cost of improvements and money expended by Mr. 
Laurgaard as city engineer amounts to about thirty-five million dollars. He 
has a strong sense of duty and honor and his record as a public servant is 
unsullied, while his life as a private citizen has been equally blameless. Mr. 
Laurgaard has further demonstrated his devotion to Portland's interests by 
investing his money in the city he loves and is also a successful 
agriculturist, owning and operating several ranches in Oregon and Washington. 
Many of his articles have appeared 4n the leading engineering publications of 
the country and as a consulting engineer he has investigated and written 
reports on the following large undertakings: Suttles Lake, Westland, Paisley 
and Tumalo projects in Oregon; and those of the Olympic Power Company, the 
Horse Heaven irrigation district and the Brewster district, all located in the 
states of Oregon and Washington.

     Mr. Laurgaard was married November 29, 1908, in Conconully, Washington, 
to Miss Goldie May Sherer, and they have become the parents of two children, 
the elder being Helen, a young girl of eighteen. She is a student at the 
University of Oregon and a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. The son, Glenn 
Olaf, aged sixteen years, is attending the Grant high school and plays in its 
band. The home of the family is at No. 155 Royal Court in Laurelhurst, one of 
the attractive suburbs of Portland.

     Mr. Laurgaard is a thirty-second degree Mason and has been chosen to fill 
high offices in the order. He assisted in organizing the Bend Chapter of Royal 
Arch Masons and in 1925 became eminent commander of Washington Commandery, No. 
15, K. T., while he is now serving as captain of the guard in the Grand 
Commandery of Oregon, an office to which he was recently appointed. He is a 
Shriner and his fraternal affiliations also extend to Portland Lodge of Elks 
and the Woodmen of the World. The Portland Chamber of Commerce numbers him 
among its enterprising members and he also belongs to the Wisconsin Society of 
Portland, the Sons of Norway, the National Geographic Society, and the 
Multnomah Amateur Athletic, Laurelhurst and Portland City clubs. Along 
professional lines he is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers 
and in 1921 was president of the Oregon Chapter, American Association of 
Engineers. He is also a member of the American Society of Municipal 
Improvements. In 1926 he was elected vice president of the American 
Association of Engineers and is now a director of district No. 1, comprising 
Oregon, Washington and Idaho, also serving as a delegate to the Oregon 
Technical Council of the same society. He was elected the first president of 
the Northwestern Society of Highway Engineers in 1917 and was made a director 
of the Oregon Society of Engineers, also becoming a member of the executive 
committee of the national reclamation conference in Washington, D. C.

     In politics Mr. Laurgaard is a republican and in 1917 and 1918 
represented his district in the Oregon legislature. During his tenure of 
office he took a leading part in the proceedings of the house, acting as 
chairman of the committee on irrigation, and was also a member of the highway 
committee. He was the author of the new irrigation district code, the state 
highway code and the sanitary code, also formulating other measures which have 
since been enacted into laws for the benefit of the commonwealth. He has 
always been deeply interested in boys' work, and is a member of the board of 
managers of the Northeast Y. M. C. A. at East Thirty-eighth and Broadway; a 
member of Scout committee of Troop 103, Boy Scouts and member of the executive 
committee of Daddies Club, Grant high school and also of the Laurelhurst 
school. For recreation he turns to tennis, golf, angling, trapshooting and 
hunting, spending his leisure hours in the open. Mr. Laurgaard credits his 
success to his policy of always "shooting square" and doing what is right as 
he sees it. Such a line is hard at times to follow, but there can be no doubt 
that it wins in the end and leaves a person with a clear conscience and a 
light heart. Natural talent and tireless industry have placed Mr. Laurgaard at 
the top of his profession, and his life history affords a striking 
illustration of what constitutes good citizenship. Impelled by high ideals of 
service, he has utilized practical methods in their attainment, and his merit 
compels respect and esteem.

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