Alfred Kabzems
With great sadness we announce the passing, at home in Edmonton, enveloped in love, of our beloved father and grandfather on July 26, 2011, at the age of 100. Dad left with a clear mind and a happy heart after living an incredible life. Born on a farm near Wolmar, Latvia on June 20, 1911, he worked in Latvia as a merchant sailor, a soldier, an apprentice scaler, and a sawmill supervisor. Dad graduated from the University of Riga and the Agricultural Academy in Jelgava as a Forestry Engineer in 1943. He and his wife Austra came to Canada as refugees in 1947 where Alf worked in the forests of Saskatchewan as a timber cruiser, forester and eventually Director of Forest Inventory. In the early days, he travelled by canoe, jeep and bush plane, and later by helicopter, but walking was by far his preferred means of travel in the bush. Alfred established sample plots for growth and yield for commercial tree species which continue to be used today. He is recognized as a pioneer forest ecologist. While living in Prince Albert, and later Victoria, he published articles and books in English and Latvian on topics related to silviculture and forest productivity. In 1996 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Latvian Agricultural University recognizing his contributions to forestry and research and his service to forestry organizations. A scholarship fund was established in his name in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Jelgava. We will miss our father and grandfather, and his sense of wonderment at how lucky he had been all his life. We will carry his spirit with us every day.
Dad was predeceased by his beloved Austra, a classmate with whom he started school in 1921. Alfred will be missed by his children Dr. Venta Kabzems (Dr. Stan Houston) and Richard Kabzems (Sandra Burton), and grandchildren Adam and Ilona Houston and Hanna and Ted Kabzems. Sincere thanks to Everett and Merle Peterson for the respect, kindness and friendship they provided for Dad and to the staff of Westshore Lodge, Victoria, where he lived for 5 years before moving to Edmonton.
Should you wish to pay tribute to Alf, you may do so by planting a tree - an ecologically appropriate species for the chosen site.