Thordar Quelprud was the son of the painter Knut Qvelprud (1860–1954) and the music teacher Nora Ingeleif Fladmoe-Qvelprud (1864–1949).
[6] Quelprud was a participant in 1929 at the 18th Norwegian Scandinavian Natural Scientists' Meeting in Copenhagen, where he was listed as having a master's degree and affiliated with the University of Oslo's Zoology Laboratory.
Quelprud originally wanted to work with fruit flies, but Bonnevie felt he should become a human geneticist.
Ahnenerbe attracted a few marginal people in Norway, but it quickly discovered that the Norwegian academic environment could not be counted on.
[5][8][15] Quelprud gave lectures on genetic biology and racial science at the Nasjonal Samling political school in Jessheim, and he wrote articles for the party's periodical NS Månedshefte.
However, Quelprud was sentenced to 10 years of loss of civil rights, according to Ørbeck because he had given a lecture at the University on "Lysenko's attack on acquired inheritance.
Ørbeck sought contact with the Human Genetics Institute, but felt that he was given a cold shoulder because of his cooperation with Quelprud.
Ørbeck then made arrangements for Quelprud to at least have access to a film projector and present images of the family genealogies.