The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Page 49

Vol. 66 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
191
Contributors
BRYAN D. BJERRING is an Anglican priest now retired from active ordained ministry. He is a graduate of
Lakehead University (B.A.), Thunder Bay, Ontario and St. John’s College (M. Div.), Winnipeg. He lives in
Arnes, Manitoba where he is happy to be involved, at long last, in the work and activities of the Gimli Icelandic
Canadian Society and the Icelandic National League of North America.
KEITH ELIASSON has lived in Riverton for his entire life. His parents were Marino Eliasson and GuSlaug
Helga (Loa) Eirikson. Loa married Gunnar Eyjolfsson after Marino died and Keith has a brother Thor Eyjolfsson
also in Riverton. Keith is married to Gail (nee Gislason) and they have one son Kelsey Eliasson. After careers in
education, Keith and Gail are enjoying retirement in Riverton.
TOM GOODMAN is a retired lawyer. He and his wife Deborah reside in Stonewall and have four grown
children.
VALA HAFSTAD is the author of News Muse: Humorous Poems Inspired by Strange News. She was born in
Iceland, but has spent most of her adult life in the United States.
ARDEN JACKSON is the CVO (Chief Vinarterta Officer) of Vinarterta.ca, Thorrablot Director of the
Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto, and a Featured Chef of the Westward Viking Festival in L’Anse Aux
Meadows, Newfoundland. Her culinary mission is to set ideas into action by using the past to go forward and
connecting to the visual and cultural landscape of Icelandic food, history and design and Vinarterta.
BORGA JAKOBSON lives in Siglavik, near Gimli. She has translated the works of Johann Magnus Bjarnason
from Icelandic into English (Errand Boy in the Mooseland Hills, The Young Icelander). She, and her late husband
Bjarki Jakobson, have passed on their interest in their Icelandic background and culture to their eight children.
HELGA (PETERSON) MALIS grew up in Gimli and moved back on her retirement, to the very property she
was born on. She finds life in Gimli equally as busy as being in the work force, but a lot more fun.
AVERY SIMUNDSSON grew up on a farm in rural Manitoba. She recently graduated with a B. Sc.
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba. She loves to scuba dive and is currently exploring the
seas surrounding the Philippines.
ELVA SIMUNDSSON is a member of the Icelandic Connection board of editors and a random book reviewer
for the journal. She lives in Gimli, MB.
HEIDA SIMUNDSSON lives in a tent in a wilderness camp in the summers where she is the cook for a tree
planting operation. In the winters she is a substitute teacher and works on her family’s farm in Manitoba’s Interlake
when she is not travelling to the far corners of the globe.
LORNATERGESEN enjoys partaking in the Icelandic Canadian community.