Shakespearean, birdwatcher, bibliophile, incurable romantic. Born on April 25, 1921 in Goerlitz, Germany; died on Sept. 11, 2016 in Toronto of pneumonia, aged 95.
On July 3, 1940, 19-year-old David, a refugee from Nazi Germany, found himself at the port of Greenock, Scotland, along with a group of Czech refugees. The Czechs were on their hands and knees, pleading to be allowed on the SS Sobieski, a departing troop-carrier ship, destination unknown. The captain acquiesced. On impulse, David slipped in with the Czechs and jumped onto the ship, thereby going to Canada.
David Hoeniger was born to a Lutheran mother and a Jewish father. By 1938, Germany was inhospitable; his father sent him for protection to a Quaker school in Holland. After completing high school and with the imminent German invasion of the Netherlands, David left for England. He loved England but was a refugee and felt compelled to leave the country.
David stepped off the SS Sobieski on July 20, 1940, in Quebec City. He was treated as a German prisoner of war and was marched with the POWs under heavy guard to a prison camp. Nonetheless, David was overjoyed to be in Canada, beginning what he called “the romantic part of my life.”
From 1940 to 1942, David resided in various POW camps in Eastern Canada. Clothing consisted of trousers with red stripes and shirts with a large red circle on the back. During his internment, he taught English to fellow refugees. In April, 1942, he was liberated with the help of Quakers. Under the sponsorship of a Victoria College professor, David studied for his BA in English, graduating in 1946. He celebrated by hitchhiking to Mexico for a month with a guitar, spending all of $122. David’s full-time PhD studies were in England (1951-1953) and his thesis was on imagery in Shakespeare’s last four plays. He became a professor in English at Victoria College, Toronto, in 1955, retiring in 1986. In 1954, David married Judith Whitaker, a fellow professor. Their son Brian was born two years later, and his sister Catherine two years after that. Judith passed away in 1987.
During his professional career, David became a leading and widely published Shakespearean scholar. Of his Victoria College experience, David felt it was a wonderful time in an unusually harmonious department. He was saddened by the subsequent decline in Shakespeare studies and annoyed by the “publish or perish” demands now placed on academics. Students remembered David in class as having a commanding presence, a resonant voice, an almost theatrical delivery and a clear passion for his subject.
In May 1952, while hiking in Wales, David realized he was surrounded by unknown birds in full song. Being musical, he wanted to know the names of the songsters. He purchased field glasses and marched off to Hampstead Heath, the beginning a lifelong passion for birds.
In retirement at his Rosedale home, David took in graduate students as boarders including, in 1990, Xueqing Xu, a visiting scholar from China. Coached in English by David, Qing obtained her PhD on Chinese writers and now teaches at York University. In 2000, David and Qing became husband and wife.
George Bryant is a birdwatching friend of Frederick’s.
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