Arne Wingqvist has left on his last journey
Arne was a well-known personality
in the vegetarian world because he
travelled a lot, not only to attend Vegetarian
Congresses and give lectures
but also to make friends.
He was born in Sweden 1919. As
a young boy he listened to a lecture
about vegetarianism and health and
decided to give it a try. His parents
supported him and he never regretted
his decision and even became a vegan
in 1980. In 1950 he worked in the
USA in the travel-business, later on
went to Australia but eventually decided
to return to Sweden where married
and got 5 children, all raised as
vegetarians.
He started a travel company in
Stockholm and formed the National
Society against Tobacco. Every morning
he got up at 4 o’clock to work in
his garden using ecological guidelines.
1953 he took part in a 500 km
fasting walk between Gothenburg and
Stockholm together with nine other
men. Newspapers wrote lots of articles
and doctors stated that the fasting
walkers would die after the first
day. The interest was enormous. On
their way to Stockholm people everywhere
wanted to see the walkers and
when entering the capital thousands
welcomed them with flowers. The
marchers had succeeded in proving
that vegetarians are strong and enduring
even while fasting. Arne organised
several fasting walks after that,
even one in Thailand in 1998. In 1997
he initiated and took part in a bicycletour
from the North of Sweden to
Stockholm during which the group
ate only raw food. The Vegan Society
had organised that event and Sigrid de
Leo, who took part in the tour, wrote
an article about it for the EVU news.
Arne loved travelling, visiting
friends, giving lectures and assisting
in any way possible. He made an Africa
tour eating only dates, visited
vegan monasteries in Romania, vegetarian
monks in Thailand and
Burma, rice-villages in Vietnam, vegetarians
in Russia, Esperanto-talking
friends in Slovakia, Japan and Turkey,
and went several times to Thailand
where he gave lectures all over the
country, attended by hundreds of people.
In 1986 he moved to Belgium for a
few years. At that time he had
changed his diet to raw food and was
very enthusiastic about that. He
wanted everyone to understand how
nourishing and practical that diet was.
After 3 years he moved to Cagnessur-
Mer in the South of France where
he started a vegetarian group. He was
also a board member of EVU at that
time. Through all these years he always
was a very active board member
of the Vegan Society, attended
meetings and stayed in contact
through phone conversations and correspondence.
He had lots of ideas of how to promote
a healthier lifestyle. Even a few
days before he passed away he had
been planning a new bicycle tour.
Since 1940 he had been a member of
the Animal Right Society in Sweden
and supported also many other organisations
working against hunger,
for vegetarianism, animal welfare,
and more humanity.
For me he was like a second father.
We had long discussions, I visited
him several times in his home in
Cagnes and we also travelled together
at several occasions. I will miss our
chats and discussions a lot. I can see
him before my eyes, sitting in a huge
garden in a better world, starting to
convince people there to try raw food.
I can imagine his surprised face when
they laugh and tell him that raw food
is what they all eat there.
Ulla Troëng:
President of the Swedish Vegan Society
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