Dick Voneugen, 1932-2025
The only two-time Citizen of the Year leaves a lasting legacy
Yesterday I and other received the following note from Robin Draper:
Sorry to have to inform you but our long time community volunteer and friend Dick Voneugen died yesterday morning. Dick had been in pretty good health but at the weekend this changed. Dick was visited by a medical team, made very comfortable and yesterday he left us. Dick had a rewarding long life and will be missed by many. A celebration of life will be held in the spring, details will be sent out later.
I didn’t know Voneugen personally, but I absolutely knew him. As I wrote in the story marking his passing for CBC:
Voneugen was a familiar face at events ranging from the Kid's Fun Triathlon to the B.C. Senior Games, often starting races or cheering on competitors by blowing through first a logging truck air horn and later a vuvuzela gifted to him by a student from South Africa who was studying at UNBC.
And that’s not all: as noted in his entry into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame he was an early organizer for many of the sports facilities and events that continue to exist and grow — the Labour Day Classic, the Terry Fox Run, the Prince George Roadrunners, the Otway Nordic Cross-Country Ski Centre, the Cranbrook Hill Greenway Trails, the Outdoor Ice Oval, the list goes on. There’s an excellent look back on his life published in the Citizen in 2014 and another in a podcast hosted by Scott McWalter and Dave Mothus on YouTube from 2022. Mothus re-posted it with this write-up:
A legend has passed away. Dick Voneugen was the heartbeat of everything outdoors in PG. RIP Dick
Some other fun facts about Dick:
He loved classical music
He ran 72km’s on his 72nd birthday
He helped bring Terry Fox and Rick Hansen to PG in 1979 for a road race
His best friend was Tom Masich
He’s the highest fundraiser in PG Terry Fox Run history
His family secretly and courageously hid Jewish families in their house during WW2
He turned 92 years last July. His one birthday wish was for people to go for a run (any distance or pace) on his birthday.
There are many many other great tributes on Facebook, of course. A sampling:
Every obituary you read, you discover another event he was involved in. Here’s the Citizen, My Prince George Now and CKPG. When you consider the sum of everything he was involved in there’s a case to be made that he is one of the most impactful people to have ever called this city home. There’s a suggestion that the Labour Day Classic be renamed the Dick Voneugen Classic and I would not be shocked to see that or some similar tribute take place.
That’s it for the newsletter today. There will be a lot tomorrow but nothing so urgent it can’t wait. Good day for a run, walk, or ski on one of the many outdoor trails he helped create.
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