Two CDs from an accomplished former resident of Rimbey have been donated to the Rimbey Community Library.
But music was only a part of the late Vern Lindberg's extensive range of talents and skills.
"He was a whiz kid - he skipped a couple of grades and went on to teach physics in New York," said Sharon Fehr, who lived near the Lindberg family during her younger years. "He later picked up a guitar in his teens, tuned it by ear, wrote songs and sang in a band called JAVA in Rochester."
As mentioned, his skills as a student could be seen pretty early on.
"Vern was in a mixed grade classroom at Bluffton where the teacher was lecturing the other grade," recalled Fehr. "I remember he raised his hand and politely corrected the teacher, explaining why the picture was an alligator and not a crocodile."
Lindberg had moved to Rimbey with his parents in 1963 (living at Lindy’s Trailer Park) and finished his schooling there. His mother, Irene, taught school at Harmonien (a one-room schoolhouse east of Hoadley), and then Bluffton and later Rimbey.
During her career, she taught many local students who still express appreciation for her, said Fehr.
His father, Wilton, who was born in about 1909, was one of the first European settlers in the Hoadley area, coming from Sweden to Canada with his mother when he was two to join his father. Wilton’s sister Margaret was born here and died when she was nine months old. His mother got TB and died in 1918.
Wilton once noted, “If children experience the joy of reading, they can learn anything that interests them.”
Meanwhile, Vern's mother taught him to read when he was four using a new technique called the Turnley System, where she would spell a sentence orally without separating words. When he was four, she would spell a sentence without breaks. Adults within earshot couldn’t decode it, and little Vern wasn’t paying attention, said Fehr.
"Then he would tell her what she had spelled. Everyone was amazed. When he started school they didn’t know where to put him."
Wilton once said that when Vern was in Grade 7 in a room shared with Grade 8 students, the teacher gave him the Grade 8 exams to write.
"Vern did so well the teacher skipped him from Grade 7 to Grade 9. His mother objected but the teacher said, “It wouldn’t be fair to him to hold him back.
“When he was valedictorian in Grade 12 at Rimbey High School, he won so darn many awards he was ashamed of himself.”
According to his obituary, at the ripe age of 16, Vern entered the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
By the age 20, he had earned a bachelors degree in physics (honours).
"Graduate school beckoned, and Vern chose Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Guitar in hand, a long train ride brought Vern across the country from Alberta to Ohio in 1969.
"He later met Joan Gray from New York City. The boy from the farm and the girl from the city were an unlikely match. But Vern and Joan fell deeply in love and married on June 23, 1973.”
Vern, who went on to become a physics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology for 34 years, passed away in 2022.
In 2017, he recorded a solo CD called A Farm’s Boy’s Work, which contains 11 original songs.
And recently, Joan donated two copies of this CD to the Rimbey Community Library because she wanted to honour him in his hometown.
“Vern picked up a guitar for the first time when (his brother) Garry came home from university with a four-string instrument. Not only did Vern tune it for Garry, but Vern immediately started plucking out tunes. He played by ear and never learned to read music," said Joan.
“I never saw Vern flaunt his achievements. He was never condescending. Instead he was a mentor - at RIT, at the Golden Link Singing Society, as a soccer coach, and as a father. He coaxed the best out of people.”
