Tenacity: My Journey Through Life

By Eystein Thordarson

As a farm boy from northern Iceland, Eystein Thordarson achieved prominence in the world of international ski racing and competed in the Olympics. He did not even speak English when he arrived in the United States. He had to compete effectively with far more educated people. His experiences with international ski racing made that possible for him. Those experiences spanned five years and included two Winter Olympic Games.

From 1960 into the early 1990s, the United States electronics industry was not only the fastest growing but also the most competitive in the world, where thousands of well-educated and qualified people desperately battled to climb the ladder of corporate success. During those thirty years, technology advanced from the use of vacuum tubes in electronic circuitry to highly integrated micro technology and computer software applications, far beyond the greatest imaginations of the late 1950s.

The public hunger for new and better mousetraps appeared insatiable, thus fueling the market continuously. The enormous industrial revolution that took place from 1960 into the early 1990s is one of the greatest that mankind has ever experienced. Follow the authors highly successful career through the maze of the high-tech industry.

Tenacity: My Journey Through Life chronicles the life of a boy from a farm in northern Iceland, to the ski slopes of the Olympics, to the boardrooms of major international corporations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781440198700

Eystein Thordarson

Eystein Thordarson grew up on a farm in northern Iceland during World War II and later achieved prominence in international ski racing, including two Olympics. He held several senior executive positions in the high technology industry with multinational companies. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Angels Camp, California.

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Tenacity

My Journey Through Life

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Eystein Thordarson

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Tenacity My Journey Through Life

Copyright © 2009, 2011 by Eystein Thordarson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4401-9869-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-9871-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-9870-0 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 07/21/2011

This book is dedicated to my sons, Gunnar and Leifur, with whom I wish I had spent more time during their childhood and to my beloved wife, Pamela, who has always been my strongest supporter.

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER I Growing Up on the Farm

CHAPTER II International Ski Racing

CHAPTER III Moving to a New Country

CHAPTER IV Entering Management

CHAPTER V Venturing on My Own

CHAPTER VI Earning a Living

CHAPTER VII Advancing in the Electronics Industry

CHAPTER VIII Working for the Japanese

CHAPTER IX Treading Water

CHAPTER X Conclusion

CHAPTER XI Epilogue

Appendix I Speech Given at Stanford Graduate School of Business

Appendix II Remarks at the Oregon Conference on Technology and Economic Growth

Preface

I worked in the United States electronics industry for thirty-six years, beginning as a product designer and achieving a senior executive level eighteen years later. My career culminated with my being a senior vice president /general manager for a major multinational corporation. This is quite notable, considering my modest beginning in life.

From 1960 into the early 1990s, the United States electronics industry was not only the fastest growing but also the most competitive in the world, where thousands of well-educated and qualified people conducted a desperate battle to climb the ladder of corporate success. It might be said that the survival of the fittest was the rule of the day, although company success was often tied to executive compensation and provided added motivation.

During those thirty years, technology advanced from the use of vacuum tubes in electronic circuitry to highly integrated micro technology and computer software applications, far beyond the greatest imaginations of the late ’50s. The industry was driven by the financial gains that were awaiting a successful company. The public hunger for new and better mousetraps appeared insatiable, thus fueling the market continuously. The enormous industrial revolution that took place from 1960 into the early ’90s is one of the greatest that mankind has ever experienced. As a farm boy from northern Iceland, I did not even speak English when I arrived in the United States. I had to make my way through this jungle and compete effectively with far more educated people. What made it possible for me were my experiences with international ski racing and with its trials and tribulations. Those experiences spanned five years and included two Winter Olympic Games.

Most facts about my personal and family life are intentionally left out, mentioned only when the information directly affected my career.

CHAPTER I

Growing Up on the Farm

I was born on a farm in northern Iceland in 1934. Iceland was a poor country in those years, and I grew up with modest means, although my parents could not have been more caring and wonderful. I have four brothers and a sister and learned very early to share and get along with others, which came in handy later in life. My parents were hardworking, and as was common in those days, my father was fully occupied with providing for the family; the burden of raising the kids fell on my mother’s shoulders. She guided me and instilled in me those values that have helped carry me through my life. Honesty, self-denial, and giving was her guide for life, as well as working hard for what you believe in. My father became a leading figure in our little community, Olafsfjordur, and when the community acquired a township, he became the town’s first mayor. I was proud of that, as we were just poor farmers who worked hard to survive.

Olafsfjordur is a narrow fjord that has an extended valley, with about fifteen farms located on the land beyond the ocean. Tall mountains run along both sides of the fjord and valley. The fjord and valley are about fifteen miles long and two miles wide at its widest point. When I was growing up, there was a small town—it has now grown—at the edge of the ocean, where small fishing boats could be docked and unloaded. Fishing was the main livelihood for the townspeople, and the whole community relied on all necessities being brought in by a boat from the larger city of Akureyri twice a week. The farms supplied some of the milk and meat for the town and received fresh fish in return.

When I was a year and a half old, I got very sick. I had double pneumonia and then developed whooping cough on top of it. This nearly killed me. In the remote countryside of northern Iceland before World War II, there was not much medical assistance. One country doctor served the whole fjord where we lived. My parents called him for help, but by the time he reached our house, my heart had stopped, and it looked like I was dead. My parents and the doctor scrambled to revive me. My father filled a large bowl with ice-cold water and another with hot water, into which they dipped me, alternately. The shock on my body got the heart going, and I started breathing after about a minute and a half. I was alive.

Being next to the youngest in my family gave me an opportunity to observe and learn from the older kids, which benefited me greatly. I was also fortunate to have our grandmother living with us; she helped my mother take care of the children. She was a God-fearing, wonderful woman who taught us valuable lessons. In those days, families were self-sufficient, and everyone helped with making a living. There was no reliance on government benefits, and everyone felt responsible for his or her own life. If anyone in the community had a serious difficulty of any kind, the rest of the families provided assistance to the best of their abilities. Thus, it came to be that my parents took in a foster son after his parents passed away, and he and his two siblings had to be raised by different families. He was older than any of us kids and turned out to be a wonderful addition to the family.

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In front of our farmhouse with my grandmother, my older sister, youngest brother, and one of my older brothers

As a young man, my father was to take over the family farm from his parents, as he was the only one of the four brothers who had an interest in farming. One summer, he hired on as a farmhand at a large farm in the southwestern part of the country. This was just for the short summer, working on the gathering of hay for the winter. This farm was located about one hundred miles from his home, and he had to walk there with his belongings on his back. He was able to ask for an overnight stay at other farms along the way, but his journey took him several days. Such was the hardship of people in those days. There was no road to our little fjord, and he did not have a horse. He had to cross several mountain ranges, and the walk must have been very difficult.

My father met my mother at this farm, as she had also hired on for the summer. She had grown up on a small island in a fjord in the southwestern part of the country and was looking to earn some extra money, as life was hard for people back then. They fell in love, and my father sent for her the next summer; they planned for her to move to his farm in the north and to get married. They were always happy together—I never heard them have a disagreement of any kind during my childhood.

My mother was a terrific housekeeper and a mother. She knew how to make the most out of everything. She always welcomed visitors with a smile and large plates of cookies and a cup of coffee. Guests were always welcome to stay for dinner as well. She offered such hospitality all her life, and she was liked by a great many people. She was exceptionally handy, too—she made all the clothes for us kids until we were teenagers. Her knitting and other handiwork was renowned in our community.

We children could always go to our mother for advice or to help us understand our homework for school. Her advice for life was invaluable. She was very religious and instilled that in us as well. She firmly believed that God did help those who helped themselves, and she encouraged us to do well in life, with God’s help.

My father was a very capable man as well. He was not only a great carpenter who could do any repair work needed on the farm, but he also made all the leather harnesses for the horses that were used for the farm work. He was a self-taught veterinarian, and the other farmers always called upon him if they needed help with a sick animal—no one else knew what to do. My father acquired the necessary tools and equipment to do this work. As time went on, he became more and more involved in the political arena for our community, which took up a lot of his time. He helped pioneer major projects for the town, such as building a hydroelectric power station to provide electricity for the town, a new and improved harbor, harnessing of hot ground water for heating up the houses in town, and the construction of a swimming pool for the community. He held the position as a manager for the community for many years, and when it acquired a township, he became the first mayor.

All this activity kept him away from our farm, and it was my mother who ran things on a day-to-day basis, with the great help of our foster brother. I often wondered, later in life, how my parents did all the work they did. I saw them working from seven in the morning to ten at night. Yet they always had the time to answer questions for us kids and to lend a hand when needed. I remember well that when I was making things to play with, such as a makeshift boat that I made out of scrap wood from a shipping crate, my father would admire my ingenuity but remind me that I should pay more attention to the workmanship.

I know that my parents were often tired, and their many responsibilities had to have taken a toll on them, but they remained strong and healthy all their lives. My mother never went to a hospital for any type of treatment in her entire life. She passed away in her sleep when she was almost ninety years old. Our family was always very close and has remained so to this day.

We were fortunate to have our own hydroelectric power when I was growing up. Ours was the only farm in the community that had electricity, and we were the envy of those who had to use woodstoves for cooking and oil lamps for lighting. This was due to the advanced thinking of my father and his brothers, who helped initiate and complete this project in 1933, the year before I was born. We also had a two-story house that was the only house in the countryside that was built from concrete.

When my parents were in their late fifties, they gave up farming and turned the property over to my brother and sister, who ran it for a few years. They moved to the capital city, Reykjavik, in 1953, where my father worked as treasurer for his brother’s company until retiring at seventy-two years of age. Later in life, I would become the president of that company for a short while.

Things had changed in Iceland after the war, and farming was no longer considered a good way to earn a living. The farm