The Blöndal family
By Nelson Gerrard
Dr. Ágúst Theódór Blöndal. the son of Björn Ágústsson Blöndal and Björg Björnsdóttir and the third generation of the Blöndal family in Canada was born at Edinburg, North Dakota in 1889.
Raised and educated in Winnipeg with the exception of his early childhood years in Dakota and Washington, he graduated from Wesley College and obtained a medical degree from the Manitoba Medical College in 1913.
In the fall of 1921 after practicing medicine at Lundar for seven years, Dr. Blöndal pursued post graduate studies which took him to London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Paris. and upon returning to Winnipeg in 1922 he established a practice in obstetrics and gynaecology. Dr. Blöndal later joined the University of Manitoba as a lecturer in obstetrics and served on the Board of Directors of the Grace Hospital.
Also a talented artist. he studied European masterpieces at the Louvre while in Paris and over the years created several exceptional works of his own in oil, watercolour, and other media. Dr. Blöndal was an excellent singer as well, and a driving force in the Icelandic Choral Society of Winnipeg.
Dr. Blöndal’s partner in life, whom he married in 1915, was Guðrún Stefánsson (b.1894) of the Brú district, the talented and spirited daughter of pioneers Stefán Petursson from Leirhöfn in Þingeyjarsýsla (1837-1926) and Geirþrúður Jónsdóttir from Fjöll in Kelduhverfi (1854-1934), who had emigrated from Sigluvík in 1888 and established a prosperous farming operation and a stately home at Brú in the Argyle Settlement in Southwestern Manitoba.
Aside from their years at Lundar and overseas, Dr. and Mrs. Blöndal made their home in Winnipeg, where Ágúst died in 1948. Guðrún Stefánsson Blöndal, known to friends and family as Gunna or Amma ‘B’, remained active in community .and church affairs in Winnipeg and passed away at the age of 92 in 1987.
Ágúst and Guðrún BlöndaI had four children:
- Dr. Harold BlöndaI (1917-1977). BSc (Eng). MD. Winnipeg. Montreal. and Toronto. married Patricia Jenkins (d. 1959), a talented author, and later married Doreen Stenton.
- Doris Marjorie Blöndal (1921)
- Alvin Theodore Blöndal (1924-1965), broadcaster Winnipeg and Toronto. married Marjorie Waterhouse.
- Shirley Jo Ann Blöndal (1935). an interior designer, married John Bishopric. Montreal (d. 1996).