Wednesday, December 11, 2019
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My condolences to Norma, Rick, Terry, their spouses and grandchildren!
Today I was very saddened to hear on the passing of our beloved Gerhard (Garry) Bonner from Kingston.
For more than sixty years Garry dedicated his life to further and enhance the image of his homeland and birthplace Austria.
Shortly after his arrival in Canada he became part of the Austrian Community of Canada, and for decades after was the President of the Kingston International Austrian Club.
In 1994 he was one of the founding members of the Austrian Canadian Council (a National Charitable Organization) and from 1994-1998 he became its first President.
Through his invaluable support we established the Austrian Councils of North America (Mexico, USA and Canada),
in 1996 he was part in the establishing of the Viennese Ball in Ottawa,
in 1998 he was part in the establishing of our 1st Austrian Chair in Canada (now called Wirth Institute) at the University of Alberta.
In 2001 together with Garry we established the very successful Austrian Canadian Council’s Awards program.
One could write pages and pages of his achievement in our Austrian Community of Canada,
but for those that did not know, I wanted to mention only a few of Garry’s accolades.
We all and I personally will miss Garry terribly, as I not only lost a dear friend but I lost a partner who was a great visionary.
Sleep well dear friend, you will never be forgotten!!
Roland Pirker, President ACC
