NORMAN M. LORENTZSEN:

Norman Martin Lorentzsen, lifelong rail industry employee and leader, was born in Horace, North Dakota on November 29, 1916, the youngest son of Norwegian immigrants. The family migrated to Dilworth (Clay County), Minnesota in the early 1930s, where his father became a section foreman for the Northern Pacific Railway Company. Lorentzsen himself worked summers as a section laborer and brakeman for the Northern Pacific during high school and college. After graduating from Concordia College (Moorhead) in 1941, Lorentzsen enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Corps, serving as a patrol bomber pilot in the Pacific Theatre through 1945. While in service he married his Concordia classmate Helen Broten (September 20, 1943), a native of Jamestown, North Dakota.

Following the war he returned to the Northern Pacific as assistant trainmaster at Duluth (1947-1949). During the next 20 years Lorentzsen was promoted steadily through the ranks of the NP operations department: trainmaster, Duluth (1949-1953); assistant to general manager-lines east (1953-1954); superintendent-Rocky Mountain division (1954-1957); superintendent-Idaho division (1957-1964); general manager-lines west (1964-1967); vice president-operations (1968-1970).

When the organization was restructured (1970) following the formation of Burlington Northern Inc. from the NP, the Great Northern Railway, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, Lorentzsen was named vice president-operations. The following year he was made executive vice president. Over the ensuing ten years he served successively as president of BN's transportation division (1973-1975); as president of BN Inc. (1976-1980); as a company director (1976-1981); as chief executive officer (1978-1980); and as chairman of the board's executive committee (1980-1981). He also served as chairman of two BN subsidiaries he founded and helped develop: Burlington Northern Transport (a trucking firm) and Burlington Northern Air Freight Inc. (an air freight forwarding company). Lorentzsen retired from BN in 1981.

Lorentzsen also served on a number of other corporate boards, chief among them Lutheran Brotherhood, Minneapolis (1973-1982). He also served as a regent of Concordia College, Moorhead (1970-1981) and on the Collegium Council of Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma (1976-1980), the alma mater of his three children, Thomas, Mary, and Katherine. Active also in a number of community service and development organizations, Lorentzsen was a leader in the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce during his BN career, serving as a director on its board (1971- ), its president (1976) and chairman (1977), vice president of its Social Action Group (1973-1981), and chairman of its Project Responsibility Task Force (1973-1975) formed to increase the involvement of business in social problems and cultural affairs.

Lorentzsen has throughout his life been a very active layman in the American Lutheran Church. He is a 1968 graduate of the Advanced Management Program of Harvard University.

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The papers primarily document Lorentzsen's career as operations vice president of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, and in several leadership positions with Burlington Northern Inc. (1970-1980). They provide information on much routine railroad business, as well as some information on corporate goals and strategy, and on the 1970 merger that created BN.

The collection also gives information on Lorentzsen's contacts and relationships with other national business leaders (1968-1982), especially in the transportation and railway supply industries; on his work as a member of several corporate boards, including Lutheran Brotherhood (1973-1982); on his service as a member of the board of regents of Concordia College, Moorhead (1970-1981); and on his work as a member of many private foundations, business and service groups, church-affiliated bodies, and educational organizations, particularly with the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce (1971-1982).

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Norman M. Lorentzsen Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Accession Information:

Accession number: 13,246; 16,058; 17,071

Processing Information:

Processed by: Dennis Meissner, December 1983, June 2005; additions by David B. Peterson, December 2015

Catalog ID number: 990017156130104294

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The Speech Files, which record Lorentzsen's presentations to a number of groups, are broken into two units: correspondence regarding his speeches (1972-1981) and the texts of his speeches (1950s-1981). The correspondence is with the organizations to which Lorentzsen spoke, as well as with BN staff members. The speech texts are, in most cases, ribbon copies of his remarks, edited and annotated in Lorentzsen's hand.

The speeches were prepared for a variety of audiences, the most common of which include shippers' groups, business and service clubs, chambers of commerce, transportation clubs and government transportation agencies, coal associations, BN stockholders, investor groups and securities analysts, NP and BN veterans' groups, and business school classes.

The content of the speeches largely concerns the activities and goals of NP and BN. They strive to inform various groups about the objectives of those companies, as well as to analyze and publicize their performances. Other speeches not relating primarily to those companies deal with the American rail industry (especially its performance and future prospects), transportation in general, coal transportation, business values and ethics, government regulation, the status and role of business in American society, personal motivation, and similar concerns.

The first folder of speech texts contains a list of Lorentzsen's 1977-1980 speeches.

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These files document Lorentzsen's participation in a wide variety of organizations including corporate boards, college and university boards, service and social clubs, charitable and civic organizations, and private foundations. The list that follows itemizes the organizations for which files exist.

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The financial files consist of several small series of papers relating to Lorentzsen's business and personal finances. The largest series is his NP and BN monthly expense account reports (1947-1981). Following that are similar reports (1974-1981) documenting expenses incurred on business for the Lutheran Brotherhood board.

There is also a folder of expense data and plans stemming from a Minnesota state trade delegation trip to Norway (1981). A file titled "Other Business Expenses" details expenses incurred during board work for Twin City Federal Savings and Loan (Minneapolis), Amtrak, and BN Air Freight (U.K.) Ltd. (1977-1981). There is also a folder of correspondence and financial data regarding Lorentzsen's personal income tax returns (1978-1981).

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Business ethics.

Charities.

Clubs.

Coal -- Transportation.

Community leadership.

Community organization.

Corporate meetings.

Corporations.

Lutheran Church -- Education -- United States.

Railroads -- Mergers.

Railroads -- Management.

Railroads and state.

Transportation -- Law and legislation.

Persons:

Bechik, Anthony, author.

Becker, William E., author.

Bjella, Arley R., author.

Davies, John O., author.

Dovre, Paul John, 1935- , author.

Downing, Robert Woodling, 1913- , author.

Fisher, Lyle Harris, 1912- , author.

Foussard, Roger P., author.

Kobs, Ober, author.

Latimer, George, 1935- , author.

Lorentzsen family.

Martin, Amos, author.

Menk, Louis Wilson, 1918- , author.

Preus, David W., author.

Quie, Albert H., 1923- , author.

Rodberg, Lawrence L., author.

Steinbright, F. Lynwood, 1904- , author.

Svee, Roy M., author.

Watt, James G., author.

Organizations:

BN Transport Inc.

Burlington Northern Air Freight Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Burlington Northern Inc.

Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.).

Lutheran Brotherhood (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Minnesota State Council on Economic Education.

Mountain States Legal Foundation.

Northern Pacific Railway Company.

Pacific Lutheran University.

Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

Young Men's Christian Association (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Document Types:

Photographs.

Speeches.

Occupations:

Businessmen.

College trustees.

Executives.

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