Spring break
Sverdrup decided to become an engineer and enrolled in a civil engineering course at the University of Minnesota in 1919. During the 1921 Spring break he returned to Norway, where he was reconciled with his father, accompanying his parents on a short holiday in Germany. He graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree in June 1921. While at the University of Minnesota he met Helen Laura (Molly) Egilsrud, a recent immigrant from Norway like himself. She agreed to marry him, but only after she had graduated, worked for a year, and taken a trip to Europe. They were finally married on 26 November 1924. Their union produced two sons, Johan Norman (Jack) Sverdrup, born in 1926, and Ralph Lee Sverdrup, born in 1928, who died of encephalitis in 1932. In the meantime, Sverdrup took a job with the Missouri State Highway Department. His first major project involved supervising the construction of a bridge for U.S. Route 50 in Missouri over the Gasconade River. Around this time, frustrated by Americans who pronounced his name "leaf" instead of "lafe", he started calling himself "Jack".