Isak Nygaard

Isak Nygaard -EVANS - Isak Nygaard (94) passed away on Tuesday, May 6, 2003. He was born in Stavanger, Norway on April 20, 1909. As a child during World War I, he witnessed part of the Battle of Jutland from the cliffs of Norway. As a young man, he was drafted into and served in the Norwegian Army. During the Great Depression, he and his brother Michael emigrated to the United States, where they both worked for Larsen's Bakery in Brooklyn, New York. -During the 1930s, Isak attended baking school in Germany, where he witnessed the Nazi consolidation of power. Disturbed by what he saw, he returned to New York and was drafted into the American Army in 1941. He served in World War II in Patton's Third Army as a sergeant in the 774 Tank Destroyer Battalion. He landed in Normandy on Omaha Beach and participated in five major campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge. -After the war, Isak returned to Norway to help his family rebuild their baking business after the German occuption. On a visit back to the United States, he met his future wife, Bernice Thomas of Alamo, Georgia. The two married and returned to Stavanger, Norway where Isak's first two children, Loisa Caroline and Thomas William, were born. He emigrated back to the United States with his young family in 1953, eventually settling in Warner Robins, Georgia. The third and fourth of his children, Lila Frances and Thor Isak, were born while he was living in Warner Robins. He and his wife with the assistance of their children successfully ran Nygaard's Bakery for almost thirty years. He was a founding member of the Warner Robins Rotary Club. -Isak placed a high value on education, and worked hard and without complaint to put all his children through college. His eldest daughter, Loisa, earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University and is now a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His eldest son, Thomas, earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and performed his residency at Johns Hopkins. After teaching for a time at the University of Virginia, he is now in practice as a cardiologist in Lynchburg, Virginia. His youngest daughter, Lila, completed a double major in Accounting and Business at North Carolina State University, graduating with Honors. His youngest son Thor completed a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech and is now an executive with Shell Oil in Houston, Texas. -Isak Nygaard was proud of his four children, but he was if anything even prouder of his eight grandchildren. Thinking and talking about them gave him a great deal of pleasure and happiness in his later years. His oldest grandchild, Anna Nygaard, will be graduating next year from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Art History and Math. Her sister, Gretchen, is an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia. His grandson Travis Greene will be starting this fall at the University of Georgia. All his younger grandchildren -- Erik Nygaard of Lynchburg, Hillary Greene of Augusta, and Kristen, Kevin, and Michael Nygaard of Houston -- are fulfilling their grandfather's high expectations. -While Isak Nygaard lived through and for his children and grandchildren, the most important person in his life was his dearly beloved wife, Bernice Thomas Nygaard, who predeceased him in December, 2001. Her death was a terrible blow from which he never fully recovered. Always in perfect health throughout his long life, he began to decline soon after her loss. But he was happy to have shared 52 years of marriage with her. He knew that she was the perfect woman for him and, as he began to show signs of Alzheimer's, would say over and over to her, "Bernice, we have had a good life together." Isak Nygaard, the child of Edvard and Caroline Nygaard of Stavanger, Norway, was predeceased by his brothers Michael and Einar Nygaard. He is survived by his sister Edith Engelsjerd, his brother Leif Nygaard, both of Stavanger, and an extended loving family scattered across Norway. -His four children would like to take this opportunity to extend their warmest thanks to all the people who made it possible for "Papa Isak" to continue living in his own home after his wife's death -- Lila's husband, Gary Greene, and their children Travis and Hillary; Gwen Broadwater along with her husband Oscar and their three children; and Rosa Nicholson. Their generosity of spirit illuminated his life. -Funeral services will be held at Platt's Funeral Home at 337 North Belair Road in Evans, Georgia (706-860-6166 orwww.plattsfuneralhome.com) on Saturday, May 10 at 11 a.m. There will be a visitation on Friday, May 9 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Platt's Funeral Home. -For out of town visitors, special rates are available through Wesley Methodist Church at the Wingate Inn, 4087 South Belair Road, Augusta, 706-860-8223. -In lieu of flowers, we encourage donations to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, Box 77, Bedford, Virginia 24523 (www.dday.org). Isak Nygaard