The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Side 11

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
9
HJALMUR F. DANIELSON
Hjalmur F. Danielson
When a man lives to enter the tenth
decade of a life that is active and
productive almost to the end, he is
bound to leave his mark along the
way.
Hjalmur Danielson, who passed
away in Winnipeg last February 21, at
the age of 91, will be remembered for
the rich and varied contributions he
made to his community, hi.s work and
to the special culture that helped shape
his character.
Veterans of two World War.s, who
took to farming in Manitoba under
the federal government’s Land Settle-
ment Branch, remember him as a
knowledgeable and trusted consultant.
Others remember him for his writings
and other work in related fields. All
who knew him remember him as a
happy, genial, well informed gentle-
man who could converse about a great
variety of subjects, but most happily
about Icelandic and English literature,
especially the old classics, which he
deemed far superior to the modern
product.
Born in Iceland, Hjalmur came to
Canada with his parents at the age
of twelve, and had already acquired
a taste for Icelandic literature, which
he cherished and cultivated all his life.
He grew up in the Shoal Lake com-
munity near Lundar, Manitoba, and
received his early education there and
where he was early an active commun-
ity worker. Lie enrolled in the Univer-
sity of Manitoba and graduated in
agriculture with a B.Sc. degree in 1915.
He was employed as an agricultural
representative with the Manitoba gov-
ernment for less than a year before
enlisting in a Field Ambulance of the
Canadian Army. He served overseas
for three years. On his return to Can-
ada and subsequent discharge from the
armed service in 1919, he took a posi-
tion with the Federal Government as
a Field Supervisor of the Soldier Set-
tlement Board, later the Land Settle-
ment Branch, with headquarters in
Arborg, Manitoba. In time his district
came to include the entire Manitoba
Interlake area. At Arborg he met and
married a young school teacher, Holm-
fridur Johnson, and there the couple’s
only son, Baldur LeRoy, was born.
During a brief period as steno-
grapher in the Department of Veterans
Affairs, following World War Two,
this writer handled some reports that
Hjalmur wrote in the course of his