Our beloved Bo Alphonce passed away on Sunday, May 14, 2000, at the age of 68. He was a member of the Saint-Ansgar's community for many years and we were delighted to benefit from his extensive musical talent while he served as our organist. Indeed, he was among the prime movers involved in the acquisition of our marvelous pipe organ, along with Linda Tae, Ruth Stoltzfus (our organist at the time), Paul Pedersen and the Holobows. The organ was custom built by Karl Wilhelm at his shop in Sainte-Hilaire, paid for in part by a gift willed to the Church by our faithful member Marinus Christiansen. It was inaugurated in 1989. After Ruth Stoltzfus left us to move with her family to Illinois, Bo became our regular organist, until such time, over a half-decade later, that he retired from his post at McGill University.
While he played for us, Bo Alphonce also served as chair of the Music Theory department in McGill's Faculty of Music from 1993-1996. He was renowned for a number of important contributions to Music Theory. In 1993 he was named a Fellow of the Swedish Academy of Music, Sweden being his native land.
He retired also as our organist in 1996 and recommended his replacement, Tammy-Jo Mortensen, one of his students. He would return on occasion to play for us when a replacement was needed. This continued on into the time when Julia Shantz became our organist. He and his wife eventually moved to Ontario (and they wintered in Florida.). After more than a decade of not hearing him play, his music is still missed.

Martha was born in Copenhagen in 1913. She married Poul Andresen in 1934 and had her daughter, Bente, in 1935. In Denmark, Martha worked for Universal Film as a film-inspectress. In 1956, Poul and Marthe immigrated to Canada. They lived here for 8 years and then, in 1964, the whole family moved to Bermuda, where they stayed for 5 years.
Martha was very happy when they decided to move back to Canada in 1969. She and Poul divided their time between Montreal, the country house in Lac Notre Dame and Bermuda. After Poul passed away in 1980, Marthe travelled a great deal with her daughter and was very involved in the Danish community, through the church.
She continued to enjoy the house in the country and spent many winters in Bermuda. Martha lived on her own, with great independence, until she passed away in July of 2010 at the age of 96.

Marty Holobow was a former pastor of St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church. See the entry under 'Pastor's Gallery' for more information on his life and ministry
Obituary
Funeral Service (full text)
Homily by Pastor Scheidt (full text)

Biography of Eli Ross-Jensen
Funeral Service for Eli: December 6, 1999
Pastor's Sermon for Eli's Service:

Biography of Henning Ross-Jensen
Funeral Service for Henning: April 25, 2003
Pastor's Eulogy for Henning: April 25, 2003
A tribute to Henning: Emil Haltiner
A tribute to Henning: Pastor Fred & Janice Jensen

The life of Bente Stoffregen

The Life of Kirsti Styker
Eulogy for Kirsti Styker
January 4, 2003
Additional Eulogy for Kirsti Styker,
by Harald Daasvand (in Norwegian)