In Remembrance of Arthur Kroeger

1932-2008

Arthur Kroeger was born September 7, 1932 in Naco, Alberta, the youngest of seven children of Heinrich and Helen Rempel Kroeger.

Arthur's parents and five children left Chortitza on August 17, 1926 and crossed into Latvia six days later. They arrived in Quebec City on September 20, 1926. From there it was a 2,000 mile trip to Eastern Alberta. The family arrived in Canada with a set of carpentry tools, a wooden box full of family diaries and documents, and the family clock.

Arthur spoke only Low German when he started school in 1938.

Arthur Kroeger graduated from the University of Alberta in 1955 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. In 1958 he joined the department of External Affairs as a foreign service officer, serving in Geneva, New Delhi and Washington. From1975 to 1992 Kroeger served as a deputy minister in the federal government in six departments, including Indian and Northern Affairs, Transport, Energy, Mines and Resources, and Employment and Immigration.

After leaving the government in 1992, he served as Chancellor of Carleton University until 2002, where the Kroeger College of Public Affairs was named after him in 1999. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 1993-94 and a visiting fellow at Queens University in 1993-2000. In 2000 he was elected as honourary fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford and received the University of Alberta's Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Kroeger authored two books: Hard Passage, and a forthcoming one to be published in 2008.

Walt and I were part of a group of 27 Leamington area people who had the pleasure of going on this cruise. The entire group consisted of more than 100 people. Arthur Kroeger, along with a sister and two brothers, were part of this tour.

On the tour we learned that Arthur's family was connected to the well-known Kroeger clock manufacturer in Chortitza. Many Mennonite families were able to bring their Kroeger clocks with them from Russia in the 1920s. The Leamington passengers on the cruise agree that Arthur kept a low profile on the trip; never once did it occur to us that this unpretentious individual in our midst was the "Dean of Deputy Ministers".

2007: Hard Passage A Mennonite Family's Long Journey from Russia to Canada: Arthur Kroeger's first book was launched at Conrad Grebel College in May of 2007. Walt and I were impressed with Kroeger's presentation there and pleased indeed to have him autograph our copy. He did not remember us from the Ukraine cruise.

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