Meet Dave Buchmann

As Dan­ish House adds up the years since its incep­tion thir­teen years ago we have wel­come many mem­bers, who are not Dan­ish born but never the less feel very much Dan­ish in their think­ing and their out­look on life. When you meet them and get to know these sec­ond or third gen­er­a­tion Dan­ish emi­grants you soon dis­cover that there is a spe­cial “Nordic” atti­tude that must have come from a car­ing mother or father, who have been very proud of their “old coun­try” culture.

We find an exam­ple of this spe­cial con­nec­tion with his parent’s back­ground when we meet and get to know Dave Buch­mann. He is one of our hard work­ing mem­bers of the Board of Direc­tors of Dan­ish House Society.

Dave was born in Tim­mins, Ontario and his father hailed from Fal­ster and his mother came from Aal­borg. The father, Karl Emil, had left Den­mark in 1914 and in 1928 mar­ried Astrid Horn­ing. Karl Emil became a min­ing engi­neer and ended up in Tim­mins, Ontario. In 1943 Astrid and Karl Emil had a son, whom they called David Ronald. He grew up to be a strong boy and a great ath­lete. His inter­ests were hockey, foot­ball, swim­ming and hunt­ing ­ well it was North­ern Ontario! He grad­u­ated from high school in Tim­mins and then went on to Malvern Col­le­giate in Toronto, where he grad­u­ated with a diploma in 1961.

This was the days of TV, with no cable con­nec­tions and Dave began installing anten­nas for the good folks in Tim­mins and the neigh­bour­ing towns.

Dave was not com­pletely happy with his edu­ca­tion and thus in 1964 decided to enter the North­ern Col­lege of Arts and Tech­nol­ogy in Kirk­land Lake, Ontario. The plan did not go full speed due to a young girl that Dave had met, they soon decided to marry and they “tied the knot” in August 1965. His new bride was a school­teacher and they both loved to travel and of course Dave wanted Karen to see the coun­try of the birth of his par­ents. In the sum­mer 1967 they toured Europe and spent lots of time in Den­mark seek­ing out the places his par­ents had told him about as a child. In 1968 Dave grad­u­ated as a Civil Engi­neer Tech­nol­o­gist from the North­ern College.

Now many posi­tions were open for Dave and he felt that British Colum­bia was the place to be with his edu­ca­tion. He accepted a posi­tion with Cat­ter­mole, Trethewey Con­trac­tors and now was part of the team, which was respon­si­ble for build­ing the new high­way between Hope and Agassiz.

The cou­ple thrived in B.C. and in 1970 their first son, Brent, was born, then in 1973 another son, Trevor; in 1975 son Blair was born and finally Neil was born in 1977. Sadly Brent later died at an early age and caused a lot of stress for the mourn­ing cou­ple. In 1986 they decided to divorce and Karen went back to Ontario. Their three other sons have excel­lent careers and are mar­ried with chil­dren of their own. Dave is a grand­fa­ther to four chil­dren all liv­ing in Ontario and he stays in close con­tact with all his sons and their families.

Early on in the sev­en­ties Dave had joined Daw­son Con­struc­tion and this time was part of the men that gave us the “Upper Lev­els” and “Cypress Bowl” High­ways, with­out which would be a night­mare to go from Van­cou­ver to Squamish or Whistler. Imag­ine dri­ving from North Van­cou­ver along Marine Drive to get to Horse­shoe Bay?!

Two other well-known com­pa­nies, Pro­gres­sive Con­struc­tion and Jack Cewe Ltd., also ben­e­fited over the years from Dave’s vast expe­ri­ence in devel­op­ment and road construction.

After his divorce Dave decided on a life alter­ing career move and joined Royal LeP­age and stud­ied for the Real Estate License, which he received later that year.

He has sold homes and busi­nesses for more than 20 years in Burn­aby and the Tri-City com­mu­ni­ties as well as Maple Ridge and Sur­rey, in fact he will go any­where in Metro Van­cou­ver for a good list­ing! Dave is now with Sut­ton West Coast Realty and enjoys his work and does not feel a need to retire.

Our pop­u­lar mem­ber re-married in July 2002 to Hui Ling Zhu from Guang Zhou, China. We know her as Julie who with her son, Ryan joined Dave, They now live in the Edmonds area of Burn­aby and Julie teaches Man­darin and Can­tonese to chil­dren of sec­ond and third gen­er­a­tion Chi­nese Canadians.

Their son Ryan is now mar­ried to Yan (no fur­ther grand­chil­dren yet).

Dave and Julie love to travel and they have gone to China many times. Dave espe­cially enjoys vis­it­ing Julie’s rel­a­tives in Main­land China and finds the fam­ily ties and the atmos­phere in their homes fascinating.

The Buch­mann fam­ily have been Dan­ish House mem­bers for almost ten years and Dave has always been eager to con­tribute and help at out­door events. He has now been a Board mem­ber for five years and enjoys the dif­fer­ent chal­lenges fac­ing the Board and take plea­sure in being part of the many cul­tural events. Dave looks for­ward to each “Kroaften” and feels that his diet must include some Dan­ish food and “snaps” to keep him in shape!!!

Dave’s forte is food prepa­ra­tion and he is in charge again of this year’s “Fam­ily BBQ” (August 23rd). Julie and Ryan always join him in doing all the chores required at this annual event. Dave is also a Dan­ish House rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the com­mit­tee, which runs the annual “Euro­fest” (May 30th). This year looks to be big­ger and bet­ter than last year’s event. Dave will also be an active par­tic­i­pant at the Annual Mid­sum­mer Fes­ti­val (June 19th, 20th and 21st) where you will find him cook­ing salmon steaks.

One of Dave’s imme­di­ate wishes for the Cen­tre is the com­ple­tion of the stor­age build­ing (annex). He would like to see some­thing more per­ma­nent and sturdy for the “Beer Tent and Garden”.

He is hop­ing that we will all put greater efforts into bring­ing more young peo­ple to the Cen­tre and instil in them an appre­ci­a­tion of Dan­ish and Nordic cul­ture. He is very much in favour of DHS going for­ward with a plan to offer schol­ar­ships to young stu­dents inter­ested in Nordic culture.

Inter­view by Niels Andersen