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Elva Dagmar Simundsson
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Librarian, historian, community activist.
Born at Arborg on 28 January 1950, daughter of Margret and Gunnar Simundsson, she grew up on the family farm at Geysir. She attended Island School, Arborg Collegiate, and the University of North Dakota (1968-1969). On 4 July 1970, she married Jerry Jonasson and they settled at Gimli. She completed a BA degree in English and History at the University of Manitoba and a Masters degree in Library Science at the University of British Columbia.
She worked as a librarian at the Museum of Man and Nature, Brandon Research and Development Centre, Canadian Grain Commission, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. She retired in 2007 after 22 years of federal public service.
Fluent in spoken and written Icelandic, she was active for over 40 years with the Gimli Icelandic Canadian Society, where she served as Membership and Scholarship Chair. She was also a long-time member of the editorial board for Icelandic Connection, a quarterly magazine devoted to celebrating Icelandic culture and history throughout North America, and she was a volunteer writer for Logberg-Heimskringla, the oldest continuously published ethnic periodical in Canada. In 1974, she co-founded the annual Icelandic Language and Cultural Camp that is still active today. She was President of the Canada Iceland Foundation that provides grants to historical, cultural, and scholarly programs and projects, and scholarships to post-secondary students. She was an active volunteer, librarian, and board member at the New Iceland Heritage Museum where she lead tours, assisted in cataloguing artifacts, and translated written materials.
In recognition of her community service, she received a Lieutenant Governor's Award for Historical Preservation and Promotion (2022).
She died at Gimli on 4 April 2026.
Obituary, Neil Bardal Funeral Centre.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 11 April 2026.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 11 April 2026
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