22nd Prime Minister of Norway. He received the recognition of being the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism, serving a total of seventeen years. Representing the Labor Party, he served from June 25, 1945 to November 19, 1951, from January 22, 1955 to August 28, 1963, and from September 25, 1963 to October 12, 1965. His father was employed with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and after he finished school, he began working for the same agency. In the 1920s he became active with the socialist labor movement. For participating with the Left Communist Youth League during a strike, he was arrested and sentenced to 75 days in jail. Beginning his political career, he was elected to Oslo city council in 1932, became deputy mayor in 1938, was deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1939 and during World War II, became Mayor of Oslo for one week before the 1940 Nazi invasion, which halted the activities of all Norwegian political parties. He became active with the Home Front Resistance movement against the Nazi Army. After being held and interrogated a few times, he was arrested in September of 1941 and tortured, before being sent to a couple of local concentration camps but eventually in April of 1942 transferred to a camp in Germany. After the war, he resumed being mayor of Oslo and helped King Haakon VII to form an interim government until elections in October of 1945. In this election, the Labor Party was victorious and remain in control until 1961. Gerhardsen resigned as Prime Minister in 1951 and took a seat in the legislative part of the government, the Storting, before he first became group chairman of the Labor Party and then President of the Storting from January 10, 1954 to January 22, 1955. During this period, Oscar Torp was Prime Minister. His accomplishments during his terms included Norwegian State Housing Bank Law of March of 1946 with low interest rates; the Child Allowances Law of October of 1946; unemployment insurance coverage in July of 1947; the Comprehensive Schooling Law of July 1954, which had children attending school for at least nine years; funds for public housing; universal pension plan with widow's benefits; payment for those in the military; and other social reform laws, thus Norway became a welfare state during his long term in office. During his term, Norway became a founding member of NATO. He continued to serve in the Storting after losing office of Prime Minister in 1965. Gerhardsen retired from national politics in 1972 but continued to influence public opinion through writings and speeches. Some of the laws passed during his term have been revised. In 1932, he married Werna Julie Koren Christie and the couple had two sons and a daughter. He authored several books, which includes a four-volume "Memories" and a text with twenty of his speeches.