ABSTRACT
When honouring the birthday of important men and women, it is common practice to look back on their active working life and what they have accomplished. So the authors, who have known Tom David Andersen the longest, thought that it would be interesting in this short tribute to look at a little of the background of this complete man and person, TOM. They who have known Tom since the first day at school soon noticed that there was something special about the boy. The war years brought problems and sorrows for Tom and his family. Tom’s father was one of the teachers who were sent to forced labour in Finnmark by the occupying forces. The ski-jumping at Holmenkollen stimulated the authors to compete in a triple combination: cross-country skiing, ski-jumping, and slalom. Often they cooked their own ski-wax at home in the kitchen, using their own, secret recipe.
