Alf Tjersland

Who is Alf Tjersland?

Alf Tjersland was a Norwegian engineer and businessperson.

He was born in Kristiania as a son of Abraham Tjersland and Thora Didrichsen. In 1931 he married Ellen Messel, née Platou, a sister of Theodor Platou, but the marriage was later dissolved.

He attended middle school in 1897 and Skiensfjorden Mechanical School in 1900 before graduating from Mittweida in 1903. He also studied at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow in 1904 and at New York Trade School for plumbers in 1907. He worked in Dayton, Ohio from 1904 to 1905, then in Chicago for one year, then in St. Louis for one year. In 1906 he was elected as a member of the American Society of Heating, Ventilating Engineers. He was a chief engineer in E. Sunde & Co. from 1907 to 1911, and became a master plumber in 1912. He was the chief executive of E. Sunde & Co. from 1914. From 1922 he was also the chairman of the board.

He chaired the employers' association Varme- og sanitærentreprenørenes forening from 1917 to 1918, then the Norwegian Association of Plumbing, Heating and Ventilating Contractors from 1919.