Stig Olov Bjork

Birth date: Apr 23, 1930 Death date: Aug 26, 2013

Stig Olov Bjork was born in Grangesberg, Sweden April 23, 1930 to Emil & Astrid Bjork and passed in Oakland, CA August 26, 2013. He lived a full, adventurous, industrious and hard working life. He was a sportsman, fisherman, skier Read Obituary

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Cris Bjork-Hilsinger

630w ago

Tegner Swedish Society of Oakland hosted a "Draping of the Charter" at Bjornson Hall, Oakland, Ca., September 19, 2013 attended by members and invited family guests. President Ken Weissenborn graciously officiated & member Marie Ann Hall compassionately described Stig's 15 year involvement with Tegner. A scrumptious potluck salmon dinner was served in Stig's honor. On behalf of Stig & the family, thank you to all! He would have loved to be there!September 22nd Stig's family gathered at Spenger's Fish grotto of Berkeley, one of Stig's favorite places to eat. Granddaughter, Marion Elise, showed the music/picture show she compiled of Stig's life/favorite music artists. It was a beautiful, sunny day so we all (daughters, son-in-laws, grandchildren, great-grandchildren) walked the Berkeley Pier into the San Francisco Bay where Stig worked for 30 years. The SF Bay will always remind of us our dad/grampa Stig.

Jesse Bjork

632w ago

"A ship cannot sail on yesterdays wind""Do not put off till tomorrow, what you can do today"~Stig BjorkA couple quotes that I will always remember and that will help me strive to be a hard working individual like Stig.

Ann Kaplanes

633w ago

Cris, I love all the pictures and commemts. I think about your comment about talking alot and then I think about the time Stig had chippys eating out of his hands. He layed on the grass out at camp, perfectly still and absoultly quiet and the chippys ate out of his hands. Another story I have always remembered, Mirge told me how you would go to the ocean and Stig would swim out and swim with the sea lions. She said it scared her and she didn't like when he did that, but he was quite comfortable. Love, to you all. Ann

Cristine Bjork-Hilsinger

633w ago

Lit a candle in memory of Stig Olov Bjork

Cristine Bjork-Hilsinger

633w ago

My Dad was a STRONG, HONEST, HARD-WORKING, INTERESTED, FUN-LOVING, OUTDOORS & FAMILY MAN.He was physically STRONG, with a body-builder physique. It was always his joke/comment that he had to â??keep his girlish figure.â?? He loved to ski & dance, was a gymnast when he was young & worked hard-long hours, priding himself in lifting heavy things, including us kids dangling from his pumping iron arm! He always lent his strong arm if someone needed help. He was HONEST & fair in any dealings with others.He started working on his grandparents farm when he was 13 & then in a bakery from 4-8am before school & heâ??s been HARD-WORKING ever since. He could have been a baker – We loved the â??Swedishâ?? torts he made for special occasions- always Sandraâ??s birthday choice. In Sweden – He apprenticed as a cheesemaker & was in the Swedish Air Force. He wanted to make a better life for himself & so got his uncle to sponsor his immigration to the States. He worked as a lumberjack & then with the mines in Michigan, where he met our mother. His big dreams took him to LA, where he took diving lessons so he could lift sunken boats. His success brought him north to the bay area where he transitioned to working at Challenge Dairy of Berkeley. Us kids loved the ice cream he brought home & once he took us to Challenge & let us see just how cold his work was in the freezer. He worked at Tidewater Sand & Gravel â?? hard manual labor, some diving, some tug boat driving â?? 3 days on/3 off or a week at work/a week off. Dad filled what is now Foster City! Once dad took Jean & I to shovel gravel on his barge docked at the foot of the San Rafael bridge. It was hard work! He also worked hard at home â?? he got his contractorâ??s license & single handedly built a â??new additionâ? to our home. I remember how proud us kids were that our dad built our new rooms. Jean & I loved our pink & blue ballerina wallpaper! He made our yard a fun place to be with tree fort, swing set, rope swing & archery area. The neighborhood kids all wanted to come to our house!He was a FUN-LOVING OUTDOORS & FAMILY MAN. We often took 1 day trips to Stinson or Half Moon Bay- singing along the way. Summers, weâ??d go to Hamon Grove swimming & fishing or go on adventure camping trips â?? where the girls in the family never knew where we were, but we always had a good time. Winters, weâ??d go to the snow. We drove across country once, seeing so many wonderful places â?? I remember Babe the Blue Ox. He taught us the polka & the shoddish & weâ??d all dance in the living room! We played canasta a lot & mom & dad played cribbage. He was a bit of a prankster â?? He brought a leopard shark he caught in the bay to our bath tub to surprise Sandra when she got home from school! We celebrated holidays with dadâ??s cousin IngaLil & visited his cousin Maylis & her family in Santa Cruz when we could. Dad was a talker. I used to say he talked at me not with me, but he had so much to say & knew so much about so many things because he was INTERESTED in our natural & man made world. He read books, journals, newspapers & seemed to know everything up & coming, such as hydroponic growing & internet accessibility on TV. I see the advertisements for Best Buy now & think â?? my dad told me about that years ago! Education was important to him. He put us through school. Iâ??m grateful for all he did for me. He is a big part of who I am today & I know that parts of him live on in me & in my kids.

Daniel Hilsinger

634w ago

Grandpa Stig taught me how to fish. He would pick me up at home in his old truck. My mom would pack us bag lunches and we would drive off to the Lafayette Reservoir, where he would rent a boat or we would walk around to one of the piers and sit near the edge. I wish we could go again, but I hope to at least do the same with my own children or grandchildren one day, so I can tell them how I learned how to fish. A couple years after moving to New York City, I came home during a break from work. I went to visit my Aunt Jeanne and Cousin Jesse and Grandpa Stig. I had a nice time with all of them. When I was leaving, Grandpa Stig walked out the door with me. I forget exactly what he said, and I wish I could remember. But I do remember that at the time, I was working hard but struggling to accomplish my goals out in New York. He said something that made me feel like he believed in me, that he knew that I would turn out okay, and that I would succeed. I hope to prove him right.

Cristine Bjork-Hilsinger

634w ago

Stig's dad & friends played the accordian, which Stig loved to listen to. He took accordian lessons, but never felt he was very good at it. After his dad passed, Stig brought his accordian back to the States & taught himself to play it. Us kids always thought he played great!Stig's dad had a motorcycle, which he was sometimes able to borrow to go to work. If there wasn't money for gas, Stig rode his bicycle to work because taking a bus cost money, though sometimes he took the bus if his dad was using the motorcycle. Stig apprenticed with a cheesemaker & considered doing that in the future.Emil, Stig's dad, developed miner's lung disease & pneumonia with fine particles in his lungs from mining underground of Grangesberg. He had surgery at the Karlinska Institute in Stockholm, but continued to do mine work above ground & to have shortness of breath, which got progressively worse.One of the most memorable events in Stig's life was immigrating to the USA. Stig's Uncle Enfred lived in the US, but went home to visit his mother so Stig went to Stockholm to meet with him & he agreed to help Stig emigrate. Stig was in the Swedish Air Force & had to complete his service first. Stig applied for a visa, had to prove that he could read & write & accept the US constitution. Uncle Enfred sent the ticket for the boat!The crossing took 7 days, traveling from southern Sweden to Germany to Canada to New York. Stig described a "luxurious" experience with breakfast, lunch, dinner & entertainment, like "a big floating hotel." There were 3000 people on the ship, half Swedes, half German. He got along well with his 3 cabinmates. The ship arrived in New York harbor in the evening & there was a celebratory dinner & dance & Stig was thrilled to see the Statue of Liberty right before them the next morning. His papers were checked & he traveled with another Swede who spoke a little English to Grand Central Station & then on to Chicago. He was amazed how everything was so different than he was accustomed to. Then it took him about 15 hours to get to Ishpeming, Michigan, where his uncle met him in his Model T. Stig traded his briefcase for a 1937 Ford that was in disrepair. He fixed it up & it ran well for him. He decided to try to make a living as a lumberjack. After working in the woods for awhile, he was able to buy his own chainsaw. His uncles & their friends were enamored with the chainsaw when Stig brought it with him back to town. He helped his uncle work on his camp & sauna. Stig was pleased with his immigration & that he had dreamed big. The living conditions & what people had, but took for granted here, were so different than what he was accustomed to. He suggested to "always dream big – it's good for you" and remarked "What you do, determines where you're going to go."Based on Elise Hilsinger's interview with her grampa in 3rd grade & her subsequent 'ancestor report.

Cristine Bjork-Hilsinger

634w ago

Stig means 'little path' & Bjork means 'birch' (tree) in Swedish. Stig's dad was a hunter/ fisherman & provided the family with meats including moose & fish. He also was a miner. His mother made all their food including his favorites coffeebread, knickebread, cookies & filebunk (like a yogurt) that he liked to sprinkle with sugar & cinnamon. He didn't particularly like nettle soup, but ate it because of the nutrients in it. Homemade rugs of rags had designs on them. A bar of soap was used by all family members & lasted half a year. Stig's chores included bringing in the wood for the stove & keeping the stovetop water tank full. The family listened to music on the radio a lot, including stations from other countries (Norway, Denmark, Germany). He enjoyed friends coming to visit. The family had a record player that Stig liked to take to the ice rink in the winter so he & his friends could dance to the music. Stig liked grammar school (1st, 2nd, 3rd) where the students sat on one long bench, but each had a place for pencils & an ink well. He was picked up by a bus & it took 45 minutes to get there. There were no tickets needed & the bus stopped for many children. For 4th, 5th & 6th the focus was on history, art, & language. He remembered taking his report card home each semester to get it signed. Stig packed his own lunch & took a cup that he could fill & drink as much milk as he wanted to at school. Stig remembered seeing his first movie (Snow White), which was a real treat, about this time. In his following years of school, Stig's favorite subject was geography & 2nd was participating in gymnastics after school. He was on a team & traveled & competed against other schools. He liked cursive the least. 2-3 times a week he enjoyed working with wood, where he made spoons that he gave to his mother & she used in the kitchen. His biggest accomplishment was a secretary that folded into a desk with drawers & took the whole semester to make.Stig also loved cross country skiing & he was on his school team that had meets with 3 other schools. He proudly got 1st place once & was awarded a prize. Burnball was a sport similar to baseball with 6 on a team. If you got caught or 'burned,' you were out of the game. He also liked to swim, play ice hockey & go to the monthly school dances. There were sometimes dances outside of school, but those cost a nickel, which was hard to get.Stig started working at his grandparents' farm when he was 13 for which they paid him. Then when his dad got sick with black lung disease, Stig started working for a baker from 4-8am before school. This also allowed him to have some extra money so he could go to the movies. Stig said regarding his childhood "You learn by your mistakes; it takes a while, little by little. You have to create challenges & overtake them. By picking things you don't know about & tackling them, it gives you self assurance to know that you can do it."Based on Elise Hilsinger's interview with her grampa in 3rd grade & her subsequent 'ancestor report.

Cristine Bjork-Hilsinger

633w ago

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