The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1959, Qupperneq 25

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
23
first Icelander to hold a cabinet pos-
ition in a provincial government. He
served both as Minister of Public
Works and as Attorney-General in the
Norris Government 1915—1922.
Tom’s widowed mother, Dora, is a
daughter of the late John and Sigridur
Landy. Her grandmother, Gudny
Landy, emigrated from Iceland, a
widow with three children, in 1875.
She homesteaded in the Argyle District
in Manitoba in 1881, and laid the
foundation for one of the outstanding
farm homes in that district—a noble
and heroic woman in the best tradition
of the Sagas and the pioneers of Can-
ada.
Young Tom inherited his fathers
steady hand and keen eye for curling.
In fact in 1944, when he was only
fifteen years old he skipped the rink
that won the Manitoba Junior Champ-
ionship, while his father won one of
the curling events in the Winnipeg
bonspiel. At the same time Shirley,
Tom’s sister, won a science scholarship
to go to Queen’s University.
When Tom Jr. was 18 years old his
father moved from Baldur to Win-
nipeg. He attended the University of
Manitoba for one year and played
hockey with the Monarch Hockey
team. Hockey scouts soon spotted him
and during the next two seasons Tom
played with the Montreal Royals, a
farm team for the Montreal Canadiens.
He then won a place on the Canadiens’
team and has played defence for them
ever since.
All sports writers agree that Tom
would undoubtedly have won top
recognition much earlier if he had not
been playing beside, and in a way in
the shadow of Douglas Harvey, who
for four years in succession won the
James Norris Memorial Trophy. This
last season Tom got his chance anti
he emerged winning the two top
awards.
Athletic championships are not won
entirely through individual prowess
Teamwork and team spirit is required.
Dick Bacon and other sports writers
have remarked on Tom being the life
of the dressing room with his good
nature, humour and prankish ways.
Anyone who knew the late Thoma
H. Johnson—and Tom’s grandfather
Chris, possessed the same traits—can
see in this hockey star the humour and
wit which the Attorney-General used
so effectively on the hustings and in
the legislature.
Tom Johnson, who is single, rer
a furnished apartment during the
hockey season and in the spring returns
to his mother in Winnipeg. Hockey
is his first love but very few men have
only one love.—W. J. L.
Alfred Eric Jones, son of Mr. and
Mrs. A. E. Jones, of 185 Rupertsland
Ave., Winnipeg, graduated in Med-
icine in the spring of 1959. His mother
is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thor-
steinn Oddson, both deceased, form-
erly of Winnipeg. Eric got his early
education in West Kildonan Collegiate.
He is now an intern at the Winnipeg
General Hospital.
The Manitoba Department of Agri-
culture has announced the appoint-
ment of W. I. R. Johnson as farm
management specialist for western
Manitoba. He assumed his new duties
on October 1st, 1959, and has his head-
quarters at the Agricultural and Home-
making School in Brandon. Lie is the
son of Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson,
formerly of Brown, Manitoba.