January 27th

On this day, twenty years ago, dad died.

Hans Mueller lived most of his life in Canada having come by ship in 1957 from Germany.  He lived in Ottawa until 1979 when he came to Winnipeg to take up a teaching job at Kildonan East Regional Secondary School.

He was an auto body repairman by trade, having followed in the footsteps of his father.  He was hired by the River East School Division to teach auto body without actually having a teaching certificate.  Initially he taught on a Minister of Labour's permit but he attended evening classes at Red River College to attain the appropriate vocational teaching qualification.

Hans was a passionate man with principled opinions and a generous heart.  He was active politically and was brave enough to run for public office on two occasions.  He was active in his union and was president of the Vocational Teacher's Organization (part Manitoba Teachers' Society).

In the words of his friend and colleague, Kieran Hunter:

"He was a man of firm ideas but he was also a man who could talk endlessly about his love for his son, Peter.  He was vociferous in support of political causes but he could also be a gentle caregiver in the classroom, or when listening or talking to his friends. He was a Golden Gloves boxing champion but he also held a degree in linguistics and could discuss in depth the concept of  'deus ex machina' in modern literature."

But everything changed with an illness which began in the prime of his life.  The degenerative neurological disease took him bit by bit but he died on January 27th 1999 at Riverview Health Centre in Winnipeg.  He was 59 years old.