Businessman.
Born at Gimli on 1 March 1913 to Petrina Soffia Anderson (1896-1995) and Gudjon Valdimar Arnason (1891-1984), he was the eldest of ten children born to a pioneering family and grew up at Espiholi, the family farm. He also exercised an entrepreneurial spirit. As a young man he fished, raised foxes, and ran a strawberry farm. He was expert in Icelandic glima (wrestling), and boxed, played hockey and enjoyed dancing at Minerva Hall. On 5 November 1938, he married Gudrun Anna “Runa” Anderson (1915-1992), and they went on to have seven children.
With his brother Johann “Joe” Arnason (?-?), he started Arnason Motors, selling Kaisers, Frazers, and Henry J's, and later modern automobiles. He worked with his brothers for most of his life. They went prospecting for uranium in northern Ontario, worked together wiring houses and farms across Manitoba, during the great period of rural electrification in the late 1940s, and created Arnason Furniture, which served the town of Gimli for many ears. They developed Willow Island as a tourist resort and later as a housing development. They started Arnason Construction and put waterworks into towns and reserves across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and northern Ontario. Although he was the boss on construction sites, he would frequently grab a spade and jump in with his crew. He was known for his skills as a problem-solver, and there were no problems in the construction field his practical mind could not solve. In later years he also found time for curling and hunting.
Recognized as the patriarch of the large extended Arnason family, he was appreciated for his wide-ranging talents, being a strong proponent of education, his strong family values, and his decency and generosity.
He died at Gimli on 24 February 2007 and was buried in the Gimli Community Cemetery.
Marriage registration [Baldwin Ellis Arnason, Gudrun Anna Anderson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 March 2007.
“Baldwin Ellis Arnason,” Paskiw/Arnason Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 5 August 2024
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