OTHAR Hansson, fisheries engineer, passed away yesterday morning in New Jersey. He was born 9 June 1934 in Reykjavik, to parents Arndis ("Daeja") Skuladottir, who worked in the Hotel Saga office, and Hans Gudmundsson, who worked for the Icelandic Freezing Plants Corporation (IFPC) and Bernhard Petersen's fish products factory.

Othar completed his degree in fisheries science in Seattle (UW) after graduating from the School of Business in Reykjavik. He then took a position with IFPC (now named Icelandic Group) in 1958. In his first years he participated in developing production and quality control in IFPC's freezing plants. Othar was managing director of the Hafnarfjordur City Cooperative in 1962, but left for a position for IFPC in Britain, where he lived for four years. He then worked for the seafood production department at Samband of Iceland, including many years as President of Iceland Seafood Corporation (Harrisburg, PA), a US subsidiary of Samband. In 1975 he was hired as VP Sales for Coldwater Seafood Corporation (an IFPC subsidiary) and three years later the company's annual sales first broke the 200 million dollar mark, widely considered a great accomplishment. Othar then owned his own company, TOP Seafood in Boston, and left a major mark through leadership roles in the National Fisheries Institute and other industry groups. He retired three years ago.

Othar married Elin Thorbjornsdottir in 1955 and they have four sons. They are Petur Oli, an attorney, Thorbjorn, civil engineer, Hans Bernhard, software engineer and Othar, software engineer. In addition to these, Othar and Elin have 7 grandchildren, all girls.

(translated from the original in Morgunbladid, April 12 2006, page 2)