Joan Cary 2018-07-18 15:19:56
As a child, Gudrun Yngvadottir’s parents would lead the family on hikes through the mountains near their Reykjavik, Iceland home. Oftentimes her mother would be busy caring for Gudrun’s two younger brothers, and Gudrun would walk with her father.
But sometimes she had other things in mind. “I don’t want to go,” she would tell him. “I don’t want to go to the top.”
“OK. OK. You don’t need to,” he would reply. “It’s not necessary. But enjoy the tour; enjoy what you can see and explore on the way to the top.”
And then Yngvi Zophoniasson would tell her about the rocks, the birds and flowers they saw along the path. They would sing—he with his beautiful tenor, and she, with joy, in her small child’s voice.
“And suddenly,” says Gudrun, smiling, “we were on the top.”
These are the stories Gudrun loves to remember and to share. The ocean and the mountains are what she misses when she is away. Out every window in her native country is a mountain to climb.
And now Gudrun has reached another peak. As Lions Clubs International President, she is at the top of the largest service organization in the world. But she never set her sights on that peak, either, she says, on break in a hotel dining room, away from the bustle of Iceland’s MD 109 annual convention in Reykjanesbaer.
“That was never my dream or my goal to become president," she says.” But leaders and mentors, including past international presidents, have watched her climb. They noted her steady stride, her preparedness for what she would encounter, her penchant for perfection, for turning obstacles into opportunities, and her natural tendency to encourage and assist others, teaching them along the way.
And finally, she said, “OK. Let’s try.”
She had been an active Lion since becoming a member in 1992, first in her club [Gardabaejar Eik], then in her district, in her country, in Scandinavia, and in Europe.
“Somebody would ask me to take care of a project or a training and I do it, I love it, and everything I want to do I have to do as well as possible,” says Gudrun. “It’s just my nature.”
“So on the way to the top I have enjoyed every project.”
Gudrun was born and raised near the coast, a shy girl who spent her days exploring the seashore, camping, sailing, and planting trees with her family. Her artistic mother, Hanna Valdimarsdottir, taught her to garden and sew, giving her fine pieces of cloth with only the instruction to “make something nice.”
Valdimarsdottir was a socially and politically active woman who led by example. She strongly supported the candidacy of Vigdis Finnbogadottir, Iceland’s first female president, the world’s first woman elected to lead a democracy [from 1980 to 1996], and also Gudrun’s French teacher.
“Having a mother like mine as a role model makes it easier for me to step forward,” says Gudrun. She admired her mother but was not interested in politics, instead choosing to focus on biomedical science at the University of Iceland.
While her career developed, she went back to study art history. Painting is her lifelong passion, and art books fill the shelves in her home.
At the University, she became vice director of the Institute of Continuing Education, working in 1990 with program director Margret Sigrun Bjornsdottir.
“Gudrun never gave up until everything was finished, however exhausted we were,” recalls Bjornsdottir. “The last year we worked together we had 300 courses and about 12,000 participants. You couldn’t have 300 programs a year without a lot of creativity. And Gudrun has that immensely. But it’s not enough to be creative. You also have to be able to execute your ideas and to get people to work with you on these ideas. That’s really what Gudrun is good at.
“She brings out the best in the people she’s working with. She’s excellent at motivating others to work for a higher cause, but to enjoy it as well.”
At the same time Gudrun was working at the university, she and her husband, Dr. Jon Barni Thorsteinsson, were raising their two children— son Thorsteinn Yngi Bjarnason, an engineer, and daughter Hanna Bjarnadottir, a designer and a Lion in her mother’s club.
“Gudrun doesn’t see obstacles,” says past international director Thorsteinsson, her sweetheart since they were 17. He describes her as “hard working, accurate and honest,” as someone who always sees the good, and always finishes what she starts, even if it means pulling an all-nighter as her family slumbers.
Gudrun became acquainted with Lions while supporting her husband’s work as a Mosfellsbaejar Lion in Mosfellsbaer, outside Reykjavik. Vision programs and Helen Keller captured her attention and opened her eyes to the global impact of Lions as she assisted him in his role as Sight First coordinator, but she also joined Lions to make friends in her new neighborhood, she says.
Close friend and past district governor Laufey Johannesdottir sponsored her.
“Everything Gudrun is doing is right from the heart, and she is doing it the correct way,” says Johannesdottir. “It doesn’t matter what kind of work you ask Gudrun to do, she is there for you.”
“Many of the club members [like Johannesdottir] are really good friends of the family,’’ explains Bjarnason, a Lion in his father’s club. “Sometimes I get confused whether they are my relatives or not.”
Icelanders appreciate this sense of community in their small country where neighbors know and treat each other like family, and where almost 1 percent are Lions—representing the highest density of Lions in the world.
At Gudrun and Jon’s, where dinnertime is coveted, her hope to encourage this closeness among Lions—to engage family more in Lion activities and bring family values to clubs—is evident. Family decisions are made with input from all family members, and family fun is important. They play card games like “Fisherman” together, and they take family ski trips to Austria, including the six grandchildren who admire their grandmother’s technique and their grandfather’s speed.
They also enjoy Lion projects and events together, like the Mosfellsbaejar Lions’ breakfast celebrating Iceland’s First Day of Summer, a national holiday dedicated to children. Between Lion business on stage and wishing “gleṍilegt sumar” [happy summer] to Lion friends, Gudrun and Jon wrapped their arms around the grandchildren, taking turns holding the youngest, baby Gudrun, while they ate.
And true to their country and upbringing, they plant trees together.
At least 4,000 hand-planted trees break the wind and bring life to the family’s summer cottage. Many have grown tall, but Bjarnason remembers when he and the trees were small. He didn’t always appreciate them.
“Why on earth are we doing this?” he would ask his mother as they dug the holes. “Be patient,” she would reply, promising that one day the trees would be tall and full of life, and he and his children would enjoy them.
“What she promised has come to reality now,” he says. “I think that’s what she’s also doing in the Lions organization. When she started to build out the Leo clubs in Iceland she was thinking to create a good society of young people, but also thinking ahead, knowing those people would grow to become good Lions in the future.”
Gudrun also taught her son to “never say never,” a phrase that remains near and dear to him.
“I was 12 or 13 and I thought, ‘what an odd thing to say.’ But later I realized it offers support and encourages persistence,” says Bjarnason. “Her persistence and creativity will benefit Lions in so many ways.
“I am really proud of my mother being the first female president, but I’m also proud of LCI for the signal it is sending to the world and to the future generations, like my 9-year-old daughter.”
He refers to Telma, his daughter who delighted her “Amma” when she was asked what she wants to be when she grows up.
“I want to be a Lion like my grandmother,” she answered.
There are hopes among many, including Gudrun, that women will take inspiration from the Lions’ supporting their first woman president, and thereby join the organization. Our 102nd international president has already seen on her visits to all constitutional areas that Lions and community leaders are re-thinking how women can make a difference in leadership roles, she says.
“In many places in the world women are welcome to serve but not to lead,” says Gudrun. “In my case, Lions are saying, ‘Oh yes, women can lead.’ Lions serve where there’s a need, and that has nothing to do with gender.”
As a candidate for international president, Gudrun was asked, “Are you going to be a woman’s president?”
Her response then and today is, “No. I’m going to be a Lion’s president.”
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