A successful farmer, sometime poet and community leader, he is keenly interested in Manitoba’s Icelandic heritage. A founding member and shareholder of Northstar Seeds Ltd., he is a pioneer in the establishment of the leafcutting bee as a pollinator of alfalfa fields in Manitoba. He is also a founding member of the Manitoba Leafcutter Bee Association and founding chair of the Canadian Alfalfa Seed Council. Additional areas of community service include being a reeve of the RM of Bifrost and current chair of the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Council. His extensive involvement with the Icelandic community includes as chair of the Esjan Chapter of the Icelandic National League of North America. In 2000, he was presented with the Knight’s Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon by Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.
