HEINRICH FRIESEN

Retired violin maker Heinrich Friesen, 42115 Ratzlaff Road, Yarrow, died November 23, 1976 at Chilliwack General Hospital. He was 84.

Born in Russia, he came to Canada in 1949 and to Yarrow in 1951 like many of the first Mennonite settlers who founded Yarrow in 1928.

He was an accomplished violin-maker. He had studied at the Moscow Institute of Music before training as an instrument maker in Mittenwald, Germany. Heinrich Friesen may not have been as well-known as Victoria's violin-maker, Justin Gilbert ... but a "blind" comparison of his violin with a seventeenth-century Stradivarius and a Guarneri at a concert in Victoria, saw the audience deem Friesen's sonorous violin to be the best instrument.

He is survived by his wife Margarete; four daughters: Mrs. M. (Ulrike) Johnston, Yarrow; Lydia, Gabriella and Norma all of Yarrow; three sons: Walter, in Nelson; Rudy and Peter, both of Yarrow; one sister, Anna Janzen, Clearbrook.

Funeral was held at Henderson's Funeral Chapel, Abbotsford under the auspices of Jehovah's Witnesses. Interment followed in Musselwhite Cemetery.

Pallbears were M. Johnston, R. Walter, R. Siemens, J. Zawadzki, B. Fehr and E. Neufeld.

Chilliwack Progress Chilliwack, BC