Ole Torvalds

Who was Ole Torvalds?

Ole Torvalds was a Finnish-Swedish journalist and poet from Finland. He was the father of journalist-politician Nils Torvalds and grandfather of software engineer Linus Torvalds of Linux kernel fame.

His full name was Ole Torvald Elis Saxberg, but he was also named Karanko after his step father, Toivo T. Karanko. In 1935 when he had moved to Helsinki for studies he changed his name to Torvalds. In 1944 he was awarded a literature prize from Svenska Dagbladet. In 1978 he received an honorary doctorate from Åbo Akademi.

His career as journalist was started as editor of Västra Nyland in Ekenäs where he stayed until after World War II.

He was married to Märta von Wendt and had three children with her. After a divorce he became editor of Österbottningen in Karleby. Then he remarried with Meta Torvalds, fathered two more children and later became editor of Åbo Underrättelser, of which he was the chief editor from 1958 to 1967.