Obituary of Pietro V. Leggiadro

Pietro Vittorio LEGGIADRO 1925 -2015
Pietro Vittorio Leggiadro, father, husband, topographer / cartographer,
world traveler, photographer,violinist, music lover, died on Tuesday, November
10, 2015. Born in Naples, Italy on April3, 2015. Son of Francesco Leggiadro and
Rosa, husband to Gerd Lindqvist, father to Rosamaria, Franco (Yolanda), Cynthia, Elena (Walter), Raffaella, grandfather to Andrea, Sydney, Adrian, Gabrielle, Luca and Rochelle, brother to Ennio Leggiadro and uncle to Rosa and Francesco. A renaissance man and adventurer he left Italy in 1951 and made his way to Canada, a country he immediately fell in love with and a country he spoke proudly of for the rest of his life. A topographer / cartographer by trade he landed jobs with Canadian Arrow and Hunting Survey where he carried out mapping projects in Venezuela and the Mekong river in Indochina. In 1959 he joined the United Nations (FAO) and then spent the next 13 years in Ghana, Nigeria and Afghanistan. Afghanistan captured his heart and he became one of the very few foreigners who made it his home for 10 years. In 1973 he left the FAO and moved to Florence, Italy where he began a new chapter in his life, that of owning and operating GEOGRAFICA , a company that played an important role on the survey and mapping scene in Italy and abroad. Some of his works included mapping projects in Sudan, Burundi, Ghana and Bahamas. In 1996 he retired to Halifax, Canada to be with his daughters who had moved there years earlier. Throughout his life he carried a passion for music and the arts. A violinist, he was a member to a number of orchestras around the world which included Kingston, Toronto, Kabul and the Chebucto Symphony orchestra in Halifax, N.S. He also enjoyed playing music with his brother Ennio and children. He taught himself how to play the saxophone. In addition to being an accomplished violinist he avidly pursued his interest in photography and has left behind a large collection of black and white pictures and home movies of countries he visited, worked in, and lived in. He loved anything new. He taught himself how to write programs, first on the small calculators then on the big computers. He was fascinated by the internet and while most of his contemporaries looked at computers as magical objects, he already knew the importance this new technology would have on the world. He gave great attention to detail and perfection and would redo and redo things until he thought they were done to the best possible result. Loved by his fellow colleagues in the emerging countries because he treated them with respect and equality. Lover of animals, politics, history, his favorite soccer team, il Napoli, cars he owned and the general pursuit of knowledge, “Babbo” will be missed and will live on in our memories forever holding a special place in our hearts.