| Leif Rode | |
| Birth Date: | 27 January 1885 |
| Birth Place: | Kristiania, Norway |
| Occupation: | competitive rower, jurist, sports official, poet and playwright |
Leif Sundt Rode (27 January 1885 – 2 November 1967) was a Norwegian competitive rower, jurist, sports official, poet and playwright.[1]
Rode was born in Kristiania as the son of physician Emil Ferdinand Rode (1825–1921) and Ragna Louise Drejer Sundt (1857–1909). He was a maternal grandson of Lauritz Sundt,[2] and thus a great-grandnephew of Eilert Sundt[3] and first cousin once removed of Harald, Halfdan and Vigleik Sundt.
He married Anna Sundt Bøckmann Puntervold Falkenberg, a maternal granddaughter of Tønnes Puntervold, in 1911. He died in Oslo in November 1967.[4]
Rode finished his secondary education in 1903, and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1908. While a student he joined the sports club Norske Studenters RK.[4] He became a competitive rower, and competed in coxed fours at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.[5] At the end of his active career he served as a sports administrator, as chairman of his club from 1913, and board member of the National rowing federation from 1914. He was president of Norwegian: [[Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports|Norges Riksforbund for Idræt]] from 1918 to 1919, and of Norwegian: Norges Landsforbund for Idræt from 1925 to 1930.[4] [6] He chaired the Association for the Promotion of Skiing from 1951 to 1953.
He was a barrister at the Eidsivating Court of Appeal from 1933 to 1945. During the German occupation, in his role as a barrister, he appeared at the defence in German courts-martial. He contributed to the civil resistance through the establishment of the "sports front". After the war he took part as defender in the legal purge, and was a barrister at the Supreme Court of Norway from 1945 to 1955.[4]
Rode published a song book in 1928, the poetry collection Men det steg en grotid in 1945, and the non-fiction book Forsvareren i praksis in 1949. His audio play Bevisbyrden was aired in 1950.[4]