Alex Gigeroff

Alex was born at 141 ½ Niagara Street, one of the poorest areas in Toronto, on July 30th, 1931. His mother gave birth to him on the linoleum floor of their family home without the aid of a doctor or a midwife. The Gigeroff family was poor and for some time had to live near the city abattoir which was located behind their house and the city incinerator located around the corner. Alex’s father Kire was born in Oshchima and arrived at the U.S. Ellis Island on the SS Lusitania on June 3, l9l0. Kire traveled under the name Kire Naumoff and came to Toronto Canada as an immigrant worker for a few years. He had made several earlier trips to the U.S. returning each time to give his saved dollars to his father. Four years later, on April 11, 1914, Kire arrived in Saint John, Canada where he assumed the name Kire Gigeroff. Kire traveled with a Turkish Passport and "Gigeroff" was an immigrant's assigned name from "Gigerovsti" the paranom of the family name in Oshchima. Alex’s mother, Velika, was born in Zhelevo (birth date unknown) around Velivden (Easter) hence her name Velika. She left Zhelevo and arrived on the SS ARABIC in Halifax, Canada on July 10, l925. Velika is from the “Krstovtsi” family which was later Hellenized to “Kertsos”. Velika kept her old last name Kostandin as it was her grandfather’s name.

Being born to Macedonian parents who spoke no other language, Alex’s first language was Macedonian, a dialect spoken in the Lerin and Bitola regions. Having no formal education in the Macedonian language, people spoke dialects of the Macedonian language passed on orally from generation to generation, naturally evolving with time.Alex grew up on Niagara Street and at age ten moved to Gillespie Avenue in the Junction District of West Toronto. He lived there until age twenty-eight while getting his high school and University Education. During this time he also spent a year in Europe. Alex earned his BA from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1952; LLB. at the School of Law, University of Toronto in l955; Barrister/Solicitor at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1958; LL.M. (Master of Law) at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law in 1966; Ph.D., (Criminology) in the London School of Economics, University of London in 1973. He then worked as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, University of Toronto (non-medical appointment) between 1971 and 1975.

In 1969 Alex received the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Research Fund Award and in 1970 he was nominated for the Prix Denis Carroll, International Society of Criminology, in Madrid, Spain. Alex has also published a book by the University of Toronto Press and has over thirty published academic and research papers to his credit.Being multi-talented, Alex also has a passion for the arts. He studied sculpture and portrait painting and taught art at the Secondary Modern School in London for a year. He was Head of the Picture Hanging Committee in Hart House at the University of Toronto and participated in Amateur Theatre. He was elected President of the Youth Association at the STs. Cyril and Methody Church in Toronto and later became President of the Yarmouth Art Society, and Yarmouth Arts Regional Centre, in Nova Scotia. Restless with a good conscience, Alex could not rest even as an adult and family man so he continued to contribute and helped design and build the Art Centre in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He painted, and designed sets for Musical Comedies and Drama including writing and performing in ORO MAKEDONSKO... He painted some of the murals in the Canadian Macedonian Place and some for public streets. He painted six murals for the Primary Schools in Yarmouth County. He was a member and became a Board Member of the Visual Arts program in Nova Scotia. Alex also participated in the Art as Therapy Program in the Mental Health Unit in Yarmouth Hospital. He is the author/playwright for “What's Around the Corner?” a children's play about bullying in schools. His latest project is a play, which I had the pleasure of reading and hearing on a CD with Alex’s own voice, called “STREDNI IGRACH” written and spoken in Aegean Macedonian, in the very same language Alex learned from his mother.

Now tell me who says Oshchimians aren’t accomplished? Actually Alex’s contributions don’t stop there. As educator and academic he has helped reform the Criminal Laws of Canada with respect to Probation and some of the Sex Offences so that millions are living freer lives and others are better protected. Born of an illiterate mother and self-educated father, Alex used his education for the betterment of Canada and "paid back" to the country that gave us freedom and the chance of an education. Alex says, “I feel enormously privileged because probably for the first time in my family in over 500 years, one of us got the chance to learn how to read and write! I had to put that to good purpose. I feel blessed that I was born into an incredible Macedonian Heritage and history. I feel deeply rooted, like a native mountain peasant sprung free. Doubly blessed with my education, coupled with my wide ranging curiosity, I've been able to span some science, law, philosophy, literature, all of the arts from painting, poetry, music and drama. I am a humanist, with a Macedonian mountain peasant soul informing and supporting an educated intellect. Hey, I'm a piece of transplanted Zdravets (wild geranium) that has spread and blossomed in new soil.

(Source: Oshchima: My little Rock By Risto Stefov)