He held the dr.philos. degree and served as a professor of history at the University of Bergen from 1957 to his retirement in 1988. He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He was a specialist on Norwegian history around 1900, with titles including Kongeriket Norges Hypotekbank 1852–1952 (1952), Kampen mot parlamentarisme 1880-1884 (1956), volume one of Stortingets historie (1964) and volume one of Høyres historie (1984), the history of the Conservative Party.
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.