Reidulf Solbakken died the night before Sunday 20 March.
Reidulf Solbakken (1952–2022).
Photo: Kjell Rune Henriksen
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Reidulf Solbakken has been a well-known person in Harstad for many years as a youth leader and editor of Radio Harstad. The longtime editor was affected by Parkinson’s 16 years ago. He has previously stated to Harstad Tidende that the disease has strongly affected him.
– It was not nice to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s. But now I grasp hope. The BPA scheme opens up new opportunities for many who are in the same situation. We can have a completely different everyday life, he said.
– Reidulf’s death came suddenly and unexpectedly to us, says brother Ole Solbakken.
He goes on to say that the family is in mourning.
Great importance for the youth
The northern Norwegian cultural profile Svein Spjelkavik writes on Facebook that on Saturday 2 April, Solbakken would have turned 70 years old. He tells Harstad Tidende that Solbakken was a cultural rock in northern Norway, without a doubt.
– He had great significance for the youth club movements, says Spjelkavik.
Harstad Tidende has received permission to publish Spjelkavik’s Facebook post:
«Reidulf Solbakken – a northern Norwegian cultural giant – went out of time the night before Sunday 20 March 2022, 13 days before he was to turn 70, Saturday 2 April. Reidulf was the youth leader who changed club-Northern Norway. He was for many years editor of Radio Harstad, this very special youth radio which he himself founded together with friends in Centrum leisure club in 1984. Reidulf received the very first Willy Oftedals Ærespris in 2011 », writes among others Spjelkavik.
The current editor of Radio Harstad, Tommy Vandalsvik, says it was a sad message to get that his predecessor has passed away.
Reidulf was a loner
– I was on the radio today with some girls. And it’s so nice that 13- and 14-year-olds say they’ve never met him, but that the job he’s put in means a lot to them. Reidulf was a loner in Radio Harstad, and it’s nice to be able to lead what he has built. I think he would have liked that there was still full activity in the premises on the radio, but I think he knew that, says Vandalsvik.
On lokalhistoriewiki.no it says that Reidulf Solbakken was in 1971 the initiator of the start of Trondenes bygdeungdomslag and then Troms bygdeungdomslag and was the leader of both these organizations.
In 1985, he was awarded the Norges Vels medal for his commitment to the youth. He received the Harstad City Merit Medal in 2005.
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