In August 2006, the University of Manitoba and the Bison Women’s Volleyball Program were extremely proud to announce the creation of the T.D. “Davey” Einarsson Bison Women’s Volleyball Endowment Fund. Mr. Theodore David Einarsson generously gifted $360,000 to the Bison Women’s Volleyball Program, a sum to be matched by the University of Manitoba through the Province of Manitoba – Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative (MSBI) grant.

This tremendous act of generosity is the single largest individual donation in Bison Sports history. The Endowment Fund will generate revenue to provide substantial support to women’s volleyball student-athletes in perpetuity.

Theodore David (T.D.) Einarsson was born in Arborg, MB on January 4, 1932. He was a great athlete who participated and excelled in several sports. Einarsson was an avid baseball player during the summer and in the winter, excelled in hockey and curling. In 1948 and 1949, he was a member of the Provincial High School Curling Champions (out of Arborg, MB). The youngest of ten children, David was the only one to attend university. Einarsson graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1956 and joined Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI) that same year. He spent time in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Northern B.C. before conducting geophysical surveys in the tropical rainforest regions of Sumatra in Indonesia. From 1959-61, Einarsson was involved in seismic oil exploration in the Sahara Desert.

In 1960, Einarsson married Giorgina Di Pietro in Cairo, Egypt. They moved to Libya, North Africa, where he became the party chief with GSI. He returned to Dallas to upgrade his education on digital technology before returning to Libya. In 1966, Einarsson was also involved with the North Sea exploration in London, England. He was promoted to Manager of African Operations for GSI from 1968-1970. In 1971, Einarsson returned to Canada as manager of GSI, Canadian Operations and in 1973 became Vice-President of GSI in charge of the Artic Area, which included Canada and Alaska. In 1975, he was transferred to Dallas, Texas as the World Wide Marketing Coordinator. In 1980, Einarsson was promoted to Senior Vice-President in charge of marine operations for GSI. In 1984, another promotion saw Einarsson become the Marketing and Strategic Manager for GSI and Senior Vice-President.

Mr. Einarsson re-formed GSI in 1992 and is the present CEO and President. GSI currently has offices in Houston, TX, Calgary, AB, and Milan, Italy and has associates and agents in several other countries including China, Turkey, England and Argentina.

Einarsson and his wife Gina have three sons (Paul, Russell, and David). Paul Einarsson heads up the Canadian arm of GSI out of Calgary while Russell works out of Houston with David.

Einarsson’s donation honours his own tight-knit Icelandic family. Einarsson’s father, Gundmundur, was sought after as a public speaker to read his poetry for special occasions in the community of Arborg. Several of his poems were published in the Icelandic weeklies. Most of his poems were written in his beloved Icelandic, but he also wrote several in English. Long after his sudden passing in 1955, a book of his poetry was created as his wife Elin faithfully collected and kept much of his work. Their oldest daughter Lauga with the help of the family created this book in 1986 titled, Braga Blys fra Oxara.

From this book one poem is titled, “Curling, Manitoba Curling Champions 1949, March 1949” The last stanza of the paragraph reads:

God give us strength and give us voice
To assist our girls and boys
Help them all to make their choice
Striving for a worthy goal.
It’s the younger generation
That will build a stronger nation
And receive the admiration
Of our country, as a whole.

This last stanza represents so much of the overall mission at the University of Manitoba. Higher education is meant to motivate, inspire, teach, and build strong role models for successive generations. Through sport, student athletes accomplish many of these goals.