Otto Petrén


Gustaf Otto Edvard Petrén was a Swedish civil servant. He served as President of the Supreme Court of Sweden from 1975 to 1979.

Early life

Petrén was born on 7 October 1912 in Lund, Sweden, the son of professor and his wife Torborg. He was the brother of the lawyer and the judge and the educator and the churchman. Otto was the nephew of psychiatrist and politician and of physician Karl Petrén.
Otto Petrén passed studentexamen in Lund in 1930. He received a Candidate of Law degree from Lund University in 1935.

Career

Petrén carried out court service in Vemmenhögs, Ljunits and Herrestad Hundred's judicial districts from 1935 to 1938. He worked as an extra legal clerk in the Scania and Blekinge Court of Appeal in 1939, as court secretary in Frosta and Eslöv judicial districts from 1942 to 1944, and as assessor in 1952. He became hovrättsråd in the Scania and Blekinge Court of Appeal in 1953 and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden in 1957. Petrén was a member of the Council on Legislation from 1965 to 1969, and served as chairman there from 1972 to 1973. He served as President of the Supreme Court of Sweden from 1975 to 1979.
Petrén was secretary in the 1948 Vagrancy Inquiry in 1948, in the Second Law Committee in 1949, and had legislative assignments from 1950 to 1953. He was director for law matters in the Ministry of Justice in 1953, and became director general for administrative affairs in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 1957. Petrén was a member of the National Export Credits Guarantee Board from 1955 to 1957, in the committee on questions related to the right to carry on business from 1958 to 1962, chairman of the Oil Protection Inquiry from 1963 to 1965, the Swedish National Association against Heart and Lung Diseases from 1972, member of the Council on Legislation from 1980 to 1981 and occasionally from 1982 to 1984.

Personal life

In 1942, Petrén married Margit Winroth, the daughter of vice consul Rolf Winroth and Carla. He was the father of Karin, Rolf, and Marianne.

Death

Edling died on 12 October 1990, in Stockholm, three months after his wife. On 11 November 1990, he was interred at his wife's family grave at Falsterbo Old Cemetery in Falsterbo in South Sweden.

Awards and decorations