 During his career, Nygren served on numerous geodetic field parties and aboard survey ships of the Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet, seeing service as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Antarctica.He also participated in many of the negotiations that resulted in the creation of the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) and its successor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Harley D. Nygren was born in Seattle, Washington in 1924.