Ólafur Björnsson Photo: SÍND
Ólafur Björnsson settled in Winnipeg in 1890 to study. He enrolled in Central Collegiate and graduated from high school. He began studying medicine and completed his studies at the University of Manitoba in 1897, the first Icelander to do so in the West. He began medical practice in Winnipeg and the city was to be his place of work for the next 40 years. He took a break from his work at the turn of the century and went to Europe. He was in London and Vienna around the same time as Brandur J. Brandson in 1902. When Brandur moved to Winnipeg in 1905, the two partnered and opened a medical practice in that city, which they ran together for years. Ólafur became an assistant teacher at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1907 and a professor at the department in 1923-1932. Ólafur had many other qualities, he worked in the arts and sciences, had a good command of languages and was considered an excellent mathematician. He constantly read poetry, both Icelandic and Canadian. (JÞ)
English version by Thor group.