Gerd Loewen

Gerd Loewen was born September 13th, 1942, in the Mennonite Colony Fernheim, in western Paraguay. He was 4th of 5 boys and of six children of Peter and Anna Loewen. He spent his early childhood in the village of Schoenau (No. 17) where he also attended his first 3 years of school. The family then moved to the nearby village of Karlsruhe (No. 16) where he continued his schooling and finished the 6th grade. Gerd especially loved to work on the farm. To work on the land and to experience nature was his passion.

Gerd and Theo were the youngest of the boys and as such they stuck together and shared many positive experiences that created a lasting bond between them. Gerd had a strong work ethic and was practical and persistently steadfast in achieving his goals. School, which he often made efforts to avoid, was far too boring for him, or at least school that required book learning. Gerd had a special love for hunting, initially with a slingshot and later with a rifle. At the early age of 13 he had already shot his first deer and later even took a jaguar. He also highly valued and appreciated the village church community, was not argumentative and was well thought of by all.

The family then moved to Filadelfia, where Gerd apprenticed as a carpenter and worked for the corporate Colony for several years. Gerd also spent a year working in Uruguay with several members of his family before returning to Filadelfia, where he worked for the Hildebrand company.

On the weekends Gerd went on many hunting trips with his bicycle. He could travel up to 100 km in a few hours, would spend the night in the bush and travel home the next day with the game he had taken (either deer or wild pigs.) His father would pay Gerd for the wild meat he brought home to the family by the kg.

Theo and Gerd both accepted Jesus as their Savior on the same day and were both baptized and became members in the same church on the same day.

Gerd’s brother Theo has written Gerd’s story up to the point that Gerd started his relationship with Almut. The rest of Gerd’s story is told by Almut.

Almut got to know Gerd and fell in love with him when he was 19, and she was 17 and living in Filadelfia. As Almut had not yet finished her schooling, Gerd decided to travel to Germany where he worked as a carpenter for almost 2 years. After Gerd returned from Germany, he visited Almut in Bolivia and they were engaged in February of 1965. Because Almut had committed to teach that year, Gerd travelled back to Paraguay and prepared for the wedding. In November of that year, he brought the whole wedding (preacher, singing quartet and a drama group) plus more along, in one vehicle. The roads were in very rough shape and no local driver from Filadelfia was found so Gerd hired a truck and driver from a neighboring colony. After a week of many truck repairs and travel in and on the back of an old, decrepit Ford flat bed with 16 people, they could celebrate their wedding. Almut then travelled back with the same group, and the two of them settled for one year in Caaguazu, Eastern Paraguay, where Gerd worked with his father. The adventures they experienced in that first year of marriage were well beyond Almut’s comfort zone. Gerd worked as a logger and Almut worked as a teacher until they moved back to Filadelfia in their second year of marriage, where their first son Leonard was born. Gerd’s parents, who emigrated to Ontario right after the Caaguazu experience, sponsored Gerd and Almut to emigrate there as well. Leonard was five weeks old when they left Paraguay and because Almut’s parents had just immigrated into BC, they decided not to stay in Ontario and arrived in Vancouver in November of 1967 with a 6-week-old baby.

Gerd loved adventure and was always a very good storyteller. Gerd had many very interesting experiences and would tell those stories throughout his life. Even though Almut heard them so many times, they were always entertaining.

Vancouver was now our new home. Almut has never regretted immigrating and felt at home from the first day onward. Although Gerd enjoyed his life in B.C., he was often homesick for the place he grew up. They traveled back to Brazil and Paraguay many times to visit siblings and friends.

Upon arrival in Vancouver, they joined Culloden MB church where they attended for 12 years. Gerd found construction work right away. Brigitte was born in Vancouver and in 1974 they moved to Richmond where Sophie and Paul were added to their family. In 1979, just before Len was to start high school they moved to Abbotsford. Gerd wanted to send their kids to a Christian high school, and they chose MEI. They found a new church in East Aldergrove MB, which later changed names to Ross Road Community Church. Gerd and Almut have attended here for over 41 years and participated and served in ushering, catering, the sanctuary building committee and belonged to various Small Groups.

Gerd had always lots of work and often took side jobs. He was the sole provider because of his conviction that Almut stay home with their children. Gaining experience with his side jobs, Gerd soon quit his union job and worked the rest of his career as self-employed. He had several different partners, and as Len became an adult, Gerd took him as partner into the company. Initially, Gerd worked as a house framer and worked his way up to townhomes and eventually apartments. A local, regular contractor client introduced them to high rise concrete work and in 1994 they built their first tower in Abbotsford which got the ball rolling. Next came the Garden Park high-rise, then Centre Ice and soon after they moved on to downtown Vancouver for many high-rises including the 48 story Wall Centre, which was Gerd’s signature career achievement. This was a very stressful life and Gerd semi-retired in 2002 after selling his share to his nephew Randy Loewen. Gerd could not stop working however, although now it was only local and part time.

Now he had more time for his hobbies. Gerd always had a deep pride in his gardening, and they enjoyed many tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes harvested and processed over the last years. From the first year in BC, Gerd consistently made time to find adventure by getting out to go fishing and hunting. Initially the trips were simple to southern interior lakes but as he was able to afford it, he eventually made many chartered ocean fishing trips to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Likewise, his early hunting trips were not far from home (except his legendary trip to the Spatzizi Plateau in 1973) but eventually he came into the habit of annual trips to northern BC for Elk and Moose. He was part of a group that regularly brought home deer, moose, and elk. Gerd and Almut had to buy a separate freezer for that large amount of game every year. Gerd continued to nurture his childhood passion for hunting throughout his entire adult life and taught his sons and grandsons (and granddaughters) to appreciate the hunt as he did.

Unfortunately, Gerd became ill in April of 2015, and was treated for a pinched nerve in his back. Through all the tests that ensued, he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which was a treatable cancer but not curable. After a year of treatments, Gerd started to go hunting and fishing again and still enjoyed it. His capacity however, steadily decreased to the point that he attended only the annual Loewen family deer hunting trip where all his sons and grandsons were grateful to spend time with him and when he did shoot a deer, he had lots of help to drag it out. Gerd remained active and hopeful throughout his battle with cancer, working in his garden, taking small tasks on some of our sites in Abbotsford and creating a new family of friends with his weekly pool partners. This was an appointment he kept very faithfully for years. Even this last year, Gerd built one more set of stairs, replacing the rotten stairs to his back deck, despite Len’s repeated pleas to allow him to come build the stairs for Gerd. Over time his health problems worsened and after a stroke and a new cancer diagnosis, Gerd finally succumbed to his terrible illness and was called home to be with Jesus on July 6th, 2021.

He is predeceased by his parents, his brothers, Hans, Henry, and Rudolf. He is mourned by his wife Almut of 55 years, his children Leonard (Rose), grand children: Janelle (Dylan) Murray and 2 great grandsons Logan and Eli, Harley (Kaitlyn) and Gus (Allyson); Brigitte (Jeff) Friesen, grand children: Andry (Steven)Chaplin, Carissa (Sam) Scholes and Dawson; Sophie and grandson Lucas and Paul (Marilio) and grandchildren Evia and Dominic.