Struggle and Triumph in My Life and Work

About the Book

This is an account of two lives led by the same person: One of intrigue and adventure in Nazi Germany during World War II, and the other of a scientific life of distinction in the United States. Norwegian-born Paul I. Rongved arrived in Berlin as a university student at about the time that Hitler was sending his stormtroopers into neighboring countries in a vain, destructive effort to dominate Europe. Rongved lived and studied in Berlin throughout the war, surviving Allied bombing raids and enduring the day-to-day privations along with his German teachers, fellow students, friends and neighbors. He was bombed out of his apartments several times and barely escaped conscription into the German Army, which was sending all available men to the Russian front. Despite the dangers, he refused to give up his studies, fearing he would lose all the time and effort he had invested in becoming a design engineer. In 1945, when the Soviets, the Americans and their Allies captured and occupied the Nazi capital, young Rongved faced another problem, that of being scooped up by the Russians and shipped to a forced-labor camp in the Gulag or Siberia. He and his new German bride eventually managed to escape the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany and make their way back to Norway. After a few years there, the Rongveds emigrated to America. Paul Rongved went on to fashion an illustrious career in the field of design engineering and construction. He designed airport terminals and hangars, worked out designs for the Empire State Building and World Trade Center Twin Towers, on shopping malls, bridges, roads, skyscrapers, bridges, cement plants and desalination structures. Among the countries in which his projects can be found are Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Norway. One of his proudest moments was when he and his partner were honored by NASA and the Army Corps of Engineers for their distinguished work on the Apollo Moon Landing program. Rongved lives in South Florida, where he continues to invent and design new projects.

About the Author

Isaac M. Flores was a writer, editor and foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for more than thirty years. He has written widely on a variety of subjects and is the author of five books. A native of the Great American Southwest, he now lives in Winter Park, Fla.