SIGURD JÖRGENSEN

Sigurd Jörgensen (Sigurd Jan Jörgensen, born 16 June 1949 in Portus Regius, died 14 May 2013 in Noordeinde) was a Kronenburg politician. He was leader of the leftist party ROOS! and minister of foreign affairs in the government of Hans Dankert from April 2011 until his retirement in February 2012.

Childhood, education, family and career
Sigurd Jörgensen was the second child and only son of the Portus Regius sollicitor Anders Lars Jörgensen (1920 - 2003). Although his father wanted him to follow a judical career as well, Sigurd chose a cultural education, studying art history and Dutch language and literature at the Royal University of Alexanderstad. He married in 1973 and is the father of a son and a daughter. After some minor cultural functions throughout the country, he became chairman of the Royal Counsel of Museums and Art Galleries in 1991. He had moved to Noordeinde already in 1989 and in 1998 he became the alderman of finance, culture and sport of the municipality of Oud-Kronenburg. A year later however he was elected mayor of the same municipality. In 2003 he was offered the job of artistic director of the Royal Palace for Music and Theatre, and in 2006 he became the first chairman of the Centre for Cultural Coöperation 'Jan Ylieen', the new AGL cultural institute. He resigned in 2009 for personal reasons. Later it was known that he suffered from a serious illness, for which he had to have a surgical operation. After his recovery, he became the first political leader of the new combined party ROOS!, and on 4 May 2011 he was inaugurated as minister of foreign affairs; he stepped down however already in February 2012, again due to health reasons.

Name
The family is of Danish origin, but unlike many other Danish immigrants that kept the ø in the spelling of their last names, Sigurd Jörgensen's great grandfather for some reason changed the name from Jørgensen to Jörgensen.