Olav Hodne

Olav Leonard Harry Hodne ( born June 16, 1921 in Lindas, † 29 October 2009) was a Norwegian missionary and author.

Life

Olav Hodne, son of a District Secretary, grew up in Bergen and attended after graduation from 1941 to 1946, the mission school in Stavanger. After theological studies, he worked for the Norwegian Santalmisjon and was sent to India in 1948. There Hodne led the first Norwegian school in Assam. From 1955, the Norwegians for the school building and church work in the former princely state of Cooch Behar Bengal was responsible. In 1967 he received his doctorate in Oslo with a thesis on the Norwegian missionary in India and just recently was Lars Olsen Skrefsrud ( 1840-1910 ) a doctor of theology.

During the freedom struggle of the Bengalis Hodne first own refugee programs brought to life and was supported in his work later by numerous organizations, including the Lutheran World Service, for which he organized the work in Bangladesh since 1972. Until the early 1980s, he worked as a missionary for the organization in India. Even in retirement, he supported the work of aid agencies in Asia.

Olav Hodne was married since 1947 with Brit Waagbø, who supported him in his work. From this marriage the daughter Kari Hilde Hodne French went bold (* 1949), which also became involved in Afghanistan in refugee work in India and human rights work. His grandson Joshua French ( b. 1982 ), a Norwegian soldier, was indicted in early May 2009 for murder and espionage for Norway in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sentenced to death.

For his missionary work Hodne was honored with numerous awards. In 1976 he was granted the Nansen Refugee Award. 1983 Hodne received the St. Olav Medal and was elevated to the rank of Commander. Multiple of the Norwegians was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

As an author Hodne published several books on missionary work in India, so last Oppreisning ( 2006) on the working in India missionary Paul Olaf Bodding ( 1865-1938 ). He died in 2009 at the age of 88 years.

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