The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1956, Síða 47

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
45
Farewell Addresses to Prof. Fiiebogi liidnudssei
Delivered at a farewell gathering for him held in the First Lutheran
Church,, Winnipeg, May 29th, 1956
I.
I have been chosen by the Icelandic
Canadian Club to bring greetings and
best wishes to Professor Finnbogi GuS-
mundsson tonight, on the eve of his
departure for Iceland. It was thought
appropriate that I should do this as
member of the Club and also of the
Magazine Board, for Professor Finn-
bogi has been associated with both
phases of our club’s activities.
This gathering for Professor Finn-
bogi is on a personal note, but it is
also for him as Professor and a member
of the community of some prominence.
My thoughts then inevitably sweep
back over the events leading
to the foundation of the Icelandic
Chair and his coming here. In 1884 a
young man, Frimann B. Anderson, held
aloft the ideal of an Icelandic school.
One year later the Reverend Jon
Bjarnason, donated the sum of one
hundred dollars, his honorarium for
his first year as editor of Sameiningin,
to be the nucleus of a fund for an
Icelandic school. In 1901, a chair in
Icelandic was established at Wesley
College, with the Reverend Fridrik J.
Bergmann as lecturer. This chair was
maintained till 1927. From 1913 to
1940 the Jon Bjarnason Academy
functioned. Then, in the forties and
at the turn of the mid-century there
was the drive that led to the founding
of the Icelandic Chair at the University
of Manitoba. The work of Professor
Finnbogi is an episode in the story of
the Chair. It is the story of a vision
and a cherished ideal.
Tonight I recall the first time I
met Professor Finnbogi. By chance it
Professor Finnbogi GuSmundsson
was the day of his arrival, or the day
after. I remember his cheery smile
and his firm handclasp, which are
typical of him. Fie was embarked on a
conspicuously important undertaking.
Tonight I recall, too, the large gather-
ing held in this church a little later
to welcome him to the community.
Professor Finnbogi has been as-
sociated to some extent with the Ice-
landic Canadian Club. At the annual
banquet of the Club the first winter
of his residence here, he gave a very
interesting address, “A Chest of Books”,
which was later published in the Ice-
landic Canadian magazine. He lias
attended several meetings of the Club
and has contributed to the programs
at meetings and to the magazine.
Professor Finnbogi has made many
friends in the community, but Ice-