Tord Ångström was born 1933 in the small rural village of Helsingfors, a few kilometers south of Lycksele in the Umeå River valley. His father was a small-scale farmer and a carpenter, his mother a home-working woman in a literal sense. Basic school of the time was six years, between 7 and 13. The common view in this context was that hard muscle work was as honorable as white-collar work was contemptible. However, all families did not share these values. The education and training of politicians, preachers, teachers, and nurses expanded steadily in the period 1920-50.

The north part of Sweden (Norrland), here defined as the four northern counties, provides an area with a coast-line of about 600 km and woods and valleys for 300-400 km westwards up on the slopes of the fjelds. In the period 1920-50, the woodland of Norrland teemed with young people from coastline to timberline. The sibships often numbered 10-12 brothers and sisters.

Farming and lumbering provided the main maintenance of the population. The iron mines of Gällivare and Kiruna in the northwest started about 1900. The copper mines of Boliden Corporation in the woodland started about 1925. The falls of the rivers were converted into power stations from about 1950. In lumbering the axes and hand saws were replaced by motor chain-saws, which in turn were replaced by forest processors. The education industry of Norrland took off with the introduction of Umeå University in the late 1950ties.

Up to 1950, the cities of Norrland were small, most people lived in the villages of the woodland. Football (soccer) was the folk sport in summer. Athletes, born and bred in the woodlands for six generations, relaxed from farming and lumbering by forceful football in the evenings. Skiing had a corresponding position in winter. Finns, Norwegians, and Norrlanders were international ski champions. Mora-Nisse about 1950 was a foreboding of the true spreading of cross-country skiing through the world.

A redistribution of the population from woodland to coast cities accelerated from about 1950. The population of the four northern counties of Norrland has ranged between 8000,000 and 900,000 in the period 1925 – 2000. Now the coast cities have expanded. The woodland is dying with an elderly population and a birth rate close to zero.

Tord was left midfielder in the Lycksele team 1950, at the age of 17. The football level corresponded approximately to the next highest in Sweden league during that period. College studies in Umeå had, however, the better out of him. After "studentexamen" 1953, he had military training for 18 months and quitted as non-commissioned officer.

Six terms of pre-medical studies were performed in Stockholm. The rearing need – harboring and maintenance of mother, father, and a small daughter – drove the Ångström family from Stockholm to Umeå 1958. The move was successful. In due time the family expanded with another daughter and two sons. Tord worked as assistant physician in the Laboratory of Pathology at Umeå Hospital and in the sanatorium of Hällnäs, a special hospital for the care of tuberculosis patients. Such sanatoria were then located in "wholesome" environments, which usually meant far from healthy people.

Head of the Laboratory of Pathology at Umeå Hospital was Carl Wilhelm Lundqvist, who left an academic career in Stockholm for Umeå 1932. He had a special interest in arteriosclerotic manifestations of heart and brain. Together with the internist Sven Ekvall, Lundqvist performed an extensive autopsy study of myocardial infarcts (2). In the Umeå area, autopsy was the rule. The autopsy diagnosis often was a surprise. It is reasonable to assume that the studies of Lundqvist and Ekvall will contribute to the understanding of the genetics of thromboembolic vascular disease (cf 3).

Many autopsies in Umeå 1958 were requested by the dialysis section, which received many desolate cases in the start (cf 1). One main task for Tord was the autopsy analysis of such fatal cases together with Axel Tornberg, consultant in charge of dialysis treatment.

Pulmonary tuberculosis had declined as a main health problem by 1958. Hällnäs Sanatorium still had a great epoch with Lars Erik Warfvinge, a brilliant clinician, as dynamic chief. The activity moved to Umeå University Hospital in 1965 and transformed to "pulmonary medicine" with bronchial asthma and lung cancer as main topics.

Tord returned to medical studies on Jan 7, 1959, term 7 out of 11, "internal medicine". The opening ceremony marked the start of medical education in Umeå and was honored by the presence of all notabilities of the town. The introductory lecture was held by professor Ingmar Bergström (4), who served as chief in charge the first month, until professor Nils Törnblom moved into office. It is obvious that the students appreciated the collegial attitude of Bergström.

Professor Nils Törnblom came from a more authoritarian line of learning, the group around Erik Ask-Upmark and many other internists of king size. In the period 1960-80, we internists considered ourselves as big, beautiful, and best. In contrast, the clinical cytologist of that generation of internists, Nils Söderström (5), reaped a vast amount of social approval by a more collegial approach to his coworkers in Lund, in the south part of Sweden.

It is reasonable to assume that the high profile of Swedish internists 1960-80 reflected an old European tradition of teaching and a reaction towards the roots of internal medicine, which partly originated in the non-divided hospital; there the surgeon was king, the total physician. The primary care centers served as minor non-divided hospitals in the period 1920-60. From about 1950, hospitals drove out the primary health care centers from surgery and emergency medicine.

By and large, Törnblom proved a resource for Umeå University. He made his students and coworkers sweat and produce - education, training, care, and research (cf 1,4,6). Tord testifies the hardships of his seventh term. However, corresponding toil was not unknown to medical students in other parts of Sweden. The assets of Umeå were – and still are – the access to many instructive patients and many sensible tutors.

In 1959, term 7 of medical studies was devoted to medicine. Term 8 was devoted to surgery. Provided that the practical training was performed with due attention and the student was considered by the staff to be reasonable safe for future patients, the courses of medicine and surgery were passed. Then the student could go forth with services as assistant physician and/or free courses in complementary specialties. The free courses comprised three terms.

After the free courses, medical students had to perform three months as assistant doctors in medicine and surgery, respectively. Then they had to pass the final examinations in medicine and surgery, the passports to a professional career as a physician. There were some advantages in the system. The temporary positions as assistant doctor created a great motivation during the courses. Temporary work covered doctor vacancies and gave experience to the students. The final examinations provided the students with respect for the bookish knowledge of doctoring.

The drawback of the examination system was the cost of vast examiner time and the psychological press on the student. The interpreter still remembers most details from his own examination by Bengt Scherstén in a far friendlier atmosphere 1971 in Lund. Törnblom was a feared examiner. The picture of Tord from the beginning of 1963 is a masterpiece. In terms of transactional theory (7), the professor always played white, the student black.

Inspired by the pathologist Carl-Martin Fajers and the oncologist Lars-Gunnar Larsson, Tord focused on clinical cytology. At that time, clinical cytology was just about to be established at Swedish university hospitals. In Sweden, one of its branches, aspiration biopsy cytology, developed rapidly through the pioneer work of Sixten Franzén in Stockholm and Nils Söderström in Karlstad and Lund (5). It took decades until the rest of the medical world accepted this simple and genius method.

After training by Franzén at Radiumhemmet and by Magnus Nasiell at Sabbatsbergs hospital in exfoliative cytology, Tord returned to Umeå and founded the Laboratory of Clinical Cytology at the University Hospital of Northern Sweden in Umeå. He remained the chief of the laboratory until his retirement 199. His clinical and administrative duties left little time for research. Nevertheless, he published around 50 papers, including contributions to international textbooks in clinical cytology and pathology. Tord also lectured on fine-needle aspiration cytology at The International Academy of Clinical Cytology in Vienna 1970-82.

The history of the Ångström brothers provides a piece of the history of Norrland 1940-2000, the history of the survivors. The evolution and turbulence of industry, economy, and education did not provide losers only. The evolution also provided opportunities for a few to actualize themselves with essential contributions to the development of their society (cf 8). It is reasonable to assume that Tord Ångström and Olle Rudolphi, the gray eminence of the cost-effective Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry, were the two in the first group of medical students, who contributed greatest to the development of the University Hospital of Northern Sweden.

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Published January 9, 2002