Marseilles-born scientist to be featured on WGN series ‘Backstory with Larry Potash,’ with help from Norsk Museum

“Backstory with Larry Potash” will premiere its program 7 p.m. Saturday, April 22, and again at 11 p.m. Sunday, April 23, on WGN about World War II and Cold War-era scientist Maj. Gen. Holger Toftoy, who was born in Marseilles.

Potash and photojournalist Mike D’Angelo, and others, filmed a year ago at the Norsk Museum in Norway, Ill.

Toftoy is most noted for recruiting Wernher von Braun and a team of 120 scientists to help jump start the U.S. Army missile program, said David Johnson, Norsk Museum president. This program started at White Sands, New Mexico, but soon outgrew that facility and moved to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Toftoy took his vision to the point of securing American superiority through guided missile systems and it eventually evolved into the space program.

A Norwegian son, Toftoy was born in La Salle County on Oct. 31, 1902, in Miller Township, north of Marseilles, to Nils and Thea (Thorson-Anderson) Toftoy. He became better known as “Mr. Missile.”

Toftoy was a pioneer, visionary, leader and soldier. His foresight, persuasiveness and persistence helped lead the U.S. to win the space race during the Cold War.

He died on April 19, 1969, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Potash interviewed two cousins of the general, Robert Toftoy and Eleanor Toftoy Helland. All the cousins were invited to Huntsville various times over the years to a dedication of Toftoy Hall and most recently the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Eleanor remembered as a child that Holger’s father, Nels, visited and the bedroom was called Uncle Nels’ room.

After Potash’s interviews about Gen. Toftoy, he was scheduled to meet in Gardner, about 40 minutes away, to film about Rev. Christian Christiansen. Born in Norway in the mid-1800s, this 85-year-old pastor shared information with the Allies after reading in the Chicago Tribune about Hitler’s heavy water program in Norway. Christiansen knew that area well from his time there as a boy. Christiansen had an admiral from Washington and another from London in his kitchen, looking at a large map on the floor. Weeks later, the heavy water plant was bombed, nixing the Nazi chance of developing the atom bomb. “The Heroes of Telemark” movie was made in 1965 to honor them, but the pastor from Gardner received little credit until top secret levels were lifted, Johnson said.

The Norsk museum has a small exhibit for Christiansen, which was shared with WGN, Johnson said.

Additionally, Potash noticed the Viking shields hanging on the balcony at the Norsk Museum. Johnson shared the story about the Columbia Exhibition of 1893, celebrating 400 years since Columbus discovered America. He also pointed out all Norwegians know that Leif Erickson discovered America 500 years before Columbus. A newspaper man from Norway had a true Viking ship built, to prove Leif could have made the journey 900 years prior.