Ted Kofoed


Brief Overview

Thorvald Andreas “Ted” Kofoed.


Share this Resource

Resource Categories

In Service to Country - New and Old

Thorvald Andreas “Ted” Kofoed was born in 1907 in Allinge, on the island of Bornholm, where his family had a small farm. His father died when he was two and since the family was very poor, Thorvald’s only occupational choice was to work for others as a farm laborer. In 1930 he decided to emigrate, which he found equally diffricult. For six years he worked on farms and in a saw mill, and one summer he went to Alaska to work in a gold mine, before settling in Seattle. Meanwhile, he attended night school to obtain his steam-engineer's license and his citizenship. In the late 1930s he worked as a heating plant operator. In 1942 Ted was drafted and served over three years in the Army, all state-side. His military experience led him to go into carpentry, so he returned to night school. He joined the Civil Service as a carpenter and worked for the U.S. Government until retiring in 1973. Ted died in Seattle, Washington, in 1998, still proud of his Danish heritage and a long-time supporter of the Nordic Heritage Museum.