a development plan for a garden suburb at Finnebergåsen. Also this area was sold to the public authorities for a modest sum. His rights in Lake Solheim was given to the same public authorities without any compensation. He thus willfully forwent substantial wealth and a prospect of profits in favor of the public interests. He also willingly contributed substantial sums of money to the benefit of refugees and catastrophe stricken people and to public benefit in Bergen city. When the American Dr. Bentham died and left an invaluable collection of ethnic Indian artifacts, his widow tried to sell the collection. But no American museums were willing to pay the sum required. Lea then raised the money and bought the collection and donated it to Bergen Museum where the collection can be seen today. Other Lea joined the Norwegian Home Guard immediately after the war and was an active officer until he approached eighty. He was educated in the military and was appointed as lieutenant. When 78 he accomplished the Niemegen march (as many times before). At 70 he was awarded the Idrettsmerket (the Athletics medal). He has also been awarded a number of distinctions and medals. He has also accomplished a number of other demanding marches. In 1923, when 30, he converted to Catholicism and in 1938 he built his own private chapel at Gjølanger. The vicar in the Catholic parish in Bergen held masses there at Lea's birthday and 17 May, the national constitution day. The Nobel Prize winner, the Norwegian Catholic author Sigrid Undset was also his guest there. Lea had emphatic cultural and literary interests. He had social connections with the Norwegian poet Jakob Sande who frequently visited Gjølanger, and the Swiss-German writer Karl Friedrich Kurz, who lived in Vårdal on the north side of Dalsfjorden facing Gjølanger. Lea also wrote poetry himself. He planted Sequoia gigantea trees. One of them has survived to this day and has reached a height of about 4 m. It is not in very good health, but is still growing. He died in 1979 in the municipality of Fjaler in Sogn og Fjordane county. Literary work Erik Grant Lea: Røsslyng og Tanker 1970. Poems Some poems in K. Stub og S. Osnes: Der Stillheten Gror, 1996. References Norvald Tveit: Fra Gull til Grønne Skoger. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag 1972. Jon Gunnar Arntsen (red.): Bergensere i Tusen år. Kunnskapsforlaget 2005. O. W. Fasting