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My Danish Background, Waldemar Westergaard

The Bridge

Editor's Note: This essay brought back fond memories for me, because I had the opportunity, some forty years ago, to meet Professor Waldemar Westergaard (1882-1963) in his pension in Store Kongensgade, near Kongens Nytoro in Copenhagen. It was the summer of 1962. My graduate school advisor, Professor Lawrence D. Steefel, was an old friend of his and recommended me to him. Professor Westergaard was eighty years of age but full of energy, charm, and good stories. He gave me the names of all kinds of people to contact in Copenhagen. The cordiality and intellectual acumen that characterize the following memoir …