Bergvall, Bjørn

Bjørn Bergvall (born 13 February 1939) is a retired Norwegian sailor, born in Oslo. He won a gold medal in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1960 Olympics, together with Peder Lunde Jr. He placed fourth at the 1962 Flying Dutchman World Championship.

From the Mu Iota History book:

Our greatest athletic accomplishment came in 1960, when Bjorn Bergvall ’62 became the only Idaho Fiji to wear an Olympic gold medal. Competing for Norway, Bergvall struck gold at the 1960 Olympics in sailing. He won the Flying Dutchman class with countryman Peder Lunde Jr. Bergvall, an Oslo native, was the 21-year-old crewman for Lunde, who was just 18. Despite their relatively tender ages, the duo stunned the world. They piloted their fiberglass boat Sirene flawlessly, building an enormous lead in seven races over nine days on a course in Naples, Italy, and won by 783 points on Sept. 7, 1960. Two weeks later, Bergvall’s flight landed in Spokane and he arrived in Moscow as a foreign-exchange student under an arrangement with the university that placed Norwegian skiers in Idaho fraternities.

Pledging Fiji that fall as a junior, along with 20 freshmen, Bergvall had already experienced far more than most of the seniors on campus. He had served 16 months in Norway’s army, attended business school and a semester at the University of Oslo, and even taught grade school while training for the Olympics. His father was grooming him to take over the family’s shipping business immediately, but Bergvall resisted. “I wanted to have more education than the other guys in the office,” he remembered. That education at the University of Idaho went beyond business classes. Like everyone who has ever lived at 600U, he got a short course in American life, courtesy of his Fiji brothers. “I did not know what to expect when I arrived at 600 University Avenue in September 1962,” Bergvall wrote in an email to his pledge brothers. “The warmth, fun and friendship of the Fiji House quickly made me feel at home. … Good memories from the two years I spent with you. With laughs, meals, roomies, TV, beers, some studying and all the rest.” Bergvall also remembered the icy sleeping porches, being fined for not properly using silverware at dress dinners, sipping bourbon and 7-and-7s, and eating fried eggs and mayonnaise at the Oriole Nest. There always seemed to be a card game going on around the house, and soon after he arrived in Moscow he and his brothers found themselves riveted to the black-and-white TV in the library during the Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon on Sept. 26, 1960. Brothers invited Bergvall to their homes for weekends and he spent two Christmas breaks in Sun Valley with another family. Bergvall also found time to star on the Vandal alpine ski team for two seasons and qualified for the NCAA championships, but had to skip it to compete in the 1962 World Sailing Championships in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he and Lunde finished fourth.

Bergvall didn’t even bother bringing his gold medal to Moscow. He had his family mail it to him later at the request of his Fiji brothers, and Jim Pope ’64 and others remember getting to see his gold medal on the dresser in his room. Handsome, charming and worldly, the 6-foot Bergvall was a hit with women on campus and a feature attraction at exchanges. “He was the most handsome guy on campus,” Kent Valley ’62 said. Bergvall’s accent was his secret weapon. One line always made his brothers smile and the co-eds swoon. “I’m from Norway,” Bergvall would say, “land of the midnight fun.” He was struck by the beauty of the campus and how similar the scenery of the Palouse was to his homeland. “It was not that different from Norway,” he said. He made that point with a slide show of stunning scenes that drew oohs and aahs from his brothers and their dates, recalled Valley. Only after the lights came on did Bergvall reveal that every photo was shot not in Norway but in the countryside around Moscow. “It was his way of saying there’s a lot of beauty in the world, but this is a beautiful place, too,” Valley said.

Bergvall also counseled his pledge brothers, who were still 18 or 19, on the mysteries of the opposite sex, and he always had a rapt audience. He could buy alcohol – and not just beer at the corner market, but a bottle of the good stuff. Bourbon, like a woman, deserved respect and couldn’t be rushed. More than 50 years later, Dennis Walker ’64 still remembered his brother’s message: Drink like a gentleman. When Bergvall poured a drink in his room for him and a brother or two, Walker took a sip and thought: “It really does taste better than three swigs straight out of the bottle.” Walker called Bergvall “a hell of a good sport,” for putting up with being a pledge.

Walker still remembered the last time he saw his Norwegian pledge brother. The two said their goodbyes in the second old hall with a long handshake and awkward hug as the school year ended. Then Walker packed the rest of his boxes and loaded them into his grandmother’s car for the trip back to Sandpoint. He was in the car ready to leave for the summer when he saw Bergvall standing alone on the front porch of the Fiji house. “All these people he’d spent the year with were driving off, probably forever,” Walker says. “I couldn’t stand it. Something just called me back.” Walker asked his grandmother to wait while he jumped out of the car and walked across University Avenue to give his Pledge Brother a proper farewell. “We had a very nice, emotional talk,” Walker said, his voice quivering at the memory. “We both knew it would be forever. I don’t remember exactly what we said, but we were both glassy eyed.”

Bergvall lived in the house two years and earned a degree in Business Administration in 1962. Idaho was only a port on his voyage to something bigger in life. He eventually returned to Norway, and at the age of 29, he finally took over the family business established by his grandfather in 1896. Bergvall built Arvid Bergvall AS into the largest marine insurance broker in Scandinavia before selling it in 1994. He stayed on as chairman of the board until retiring in 1997. Then Bergvall did it all again. This time some of his former co-workers convinced him to form a new marine insurance company, Bergvall Marine AS, before selling that business in 2013.

In 2021, he was 82 and enjoying life in Norway surrounded by family (including five grandchildren) and friends. Bergvall wasn’t the first Norwegian exchange student to live at 600 University Avenue, nor would he be the last. Helge Gagnum ’56 was a popular Fiji ski star for the Vandals. John Ostbo ’65 arrived in the spring of 1963 after being recommended by Bergvall. Then came another popular Fiji with a familiar first name, Bjorn Juvet ’68, who traveled back from Norway to Moscow for his 50th class reunion in 2018.