The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2003, Blaðsíða 12

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 57 #4
recognized for his years of dedication to
the English language, as a writer, a story-
teller, and an educator. The next after-
noon, the Icelandic Ambassador couple to
Canada, Hjalmar W. Hannesson and Anna
Birgis, held a party at the Icelandic
Embassy in Bill’s honour. The Icelandic-
Canadian and Logberg Heimskringla
quickly published an article about him and
Steinjaor Gudbjartsson of Morganbladid
followed, with a story and full-colour pho-
tographs under the by-line “Author Bill
Valgardson receives the highest recognition
in Canada.” On behalf of The Icelandic
Canadian, I talked to him by e-mail and
telephone at his home in Victoria.
Nina: Tell me about the career that
brought you from Gimli Collegiate
Institute to Rideau Hall.
Bill: I’m sitting here staring at the wall,
remembering how I staggered from one
degree to another. There was no plan. I
went to university because the guys I was
working with were going. I took courses
because other people were taking them. I
stumbled into our school inspector, John
W.D. Valgardson with his parents
Dempsey and Rae at the docks in Sidney,
British Columbia.
Menzies, on the street one day and got a
teaching job. Decided if I was going to
teach I should get the qualifications so I
could make a better salary. Went to the
Faculty of Education, then summer school,
so I could get a B.Ed. Went to Iowa for a
Master’s more by accident than design.
That’s three degrees. Stumble, stumble,
stumble. But I did develop a simple plan
when I was twenty: “I want to be a
writer.” That was it. A no-frills plan.
Everything else was a side issue.
Nina: Why did you choose University
of Winnipeg for your undergrad?
Bill: I was working in the warehouse
for the United Grain Growers, along with
a group of boys around my age. I was get-
ting $30 a week for a 40-hour week and
extra for working evenings. Plus we were
given a daily meal ticket.
I got the summer job because my
Uncle Hughie was the head of the mail
office. On his say-so I got this job unload-
ing stinking hot boxcars and stacking pig
feed. Sometimes I worked in the mail
room destroying old correspondence. I
used to rip the stamps off the envelopes,
and when I had enough I’d sell them to a
stamp dealer.
The high school grades came out, and
the other boys were all going to university.
My grades were better than some of them
and they said that I should go to university
with them. It had never occurred to me.
One of them, Jack Marsh, said he’d take me
with him and show me how to enroll. So I
called my folks, and to their credit, they sti-
fled their shock, said “OK” and I went to
University of Manitoba.
It wasn’t a happy experience. U of M
was small by today’s standards, but I was
lost. Harold Bjarnason, (now Dean of
Agricultural and Food Sciences at U of M)
was staying in residence at United College
(now the University of Winnipeg). He
suggested that I move there the next fall.
That I did. In return, my grandmother
found him a place to stay with a friend of
hers.
Nina: I’ve heard you say that United
was a good choice for you. How so?
Bill: United was a good choice because
it was smaller. The classes were smaller.