Chair: President Avrum Liederman 

Land Acknowledgment: President Avrum 

Anthem:  Arthur Retnakaran 

Toast:   President Avrum 

Attendance: 14 including 3 guests; Dorothy Evans, Michael Conway, President-RC of Agincourt, and international student- Haseeb Cader. 

There were no scheduled speakers and as always,  

  Rotarian Gerd Wengler stepped up to the podium and filled the spot. Today’s topic is Chapter One of Gerd’s life. 

Gerd Wengler was born on December 8, 1960. His father was a regional Planner and his mother was a homemaker. His parents knew each other practically all their lives since they were babies as his grandparents on both sides were friends. 

Gerd had a happy childhood with a lot of monitored freedom. He started school at the age of 5 and spent 4 years in grammar school. In grade 10, he had to choose his path in life, he chose Engineering.  His first language learned in school was Latin which he found to be helpful in his thought process. His second language was English followed by Greek which was very helpful in high school.  

Gerd finished grade 13 at age 18, acquired his driver’s license, and joined the army. The unit he served in took care of every aspect of the army. His main job was a Postman which he thoroughly enjoyed. He made it to the position of Corporal. 

After the army, Gerd went to university to pursue his Engineering degree but in his first 3 semesters, the subjects offered and taken were not in the field of engineering so he changed university and went to the Institute of Technology where he continued his course of studies but did not complete his engineering degree as he was offered a position with a Canadian company. He was in the process of accepting the position when he saw an advertisement at Schlumberger, the world’s largest offshore drilling company. He applied and accepted a position. He was trained in Indonesia and his first assignment was on the Drillship – “Seacrest”. Gerd worked in the gold and uranium mining fields in three countries. In South Africa, the gold mine was 3 km deep; in Australia and Canada, he worked in the Uranium mines.