Günther Paul Steudel
February 12, 1947 – March 1, 2022
Günther finished this life project suddenly and quickly.
Born the second child and first son to Elisabeth (Hafner) and Joseph Steudel on 12 February 1947 in Kempten, Allgäu, Germany, Günther Paul Steudel represented a new beginning to a couple and a family that had lost so much and all hope by virtue of the most devastating events of the age. The birth of this boy would lead to dramatic decisions and extraordinary commitments which shaped the family during a time bridging the 20th and the 21st Centuries. The events of the day led the family to seek opportunity far from the ancestral home for which they had fought and sacrificed.
Emigrating on a very long journey with his parents and sisters to Canada in 1953 on a ship called the MS Fairsea, then riding the train to Edmonton, Alberta as a 6 year old boy, young Günther learned the language and culture and history of a new land. By the age of 9, his family was again uprooted in its search for opportunity and he entered the United States where he would grow up in Ohio and Pennsylvania. His attention during this time was not on mathematics or sciences or being a good student, though these were of course in the mix, but rather on extra-curricular activities like marching band drumming, and swimming pool life guarding and golf course caddying, and girls of course.
There were a few passions though that he harbored with extra intent. First and foremost was music. For Günther, music was the language of eternal life. Powerfully influenced by his mother and the piano in the living room, and with a seat at the birth of the age of synthesizer electronic music, his earliest dreams were to compose and produce new sound for the new generations. After earning an undergraduate degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and studying music at the University of Pittsburgh, he had an early failed attempt at playing teacher to disinterested high school students. This was a defining moment in Günther’s life because after that failed attempt, he decided to be the architect of his own life.
The transformative momentum of the late 60s and early 70s held uncertainty, risk and potential, and he decided to channel his interest to the earliest founders of this new technology including Don Buchla and his new sound computing instruments. These were exciting times in the world of music as an entirely new vista opened its doors.
But by then the Vietnam War was raging and a frightfully low draft number was in his possession. The violence of the day forced him to put these dreams on hold. His father and his brother in law Tom Jackson helped him to accept the embrace of Canada as a safe and sane place to call home. He would spend the rest of his life in Ontario, fully Canadian in his values, his thinking, and his consciousness.
Building a new life in the Toronto area, he found employment in the rapidly emerging world of computers and library automation systems at UTLAS, and this would turn out to have again a dramatic impact on the direction of his life. Teaching himself computer programming in this corporate world led him to realize that he was not cut out for corporate life, but that he was quite adept at the logic of programming. And in that space is where he would spend the rest of his life.
The electronic music scene in Toronto didn’t exist at that time, and to keep that flame alive, Günther decided to organize his own Buchla System – an enormous investment that led him to find work as a lumberjack in the forestry business of British Columbia where wages would allow him to build a nest egg. He worked very hard for a year until his dream came into focus. And after an exciting trip to California, Günther built his own personal music studio in the fifth floor of an unused bank warehouse building near the rail yards of Toronto.
Günther was a product of the 60s – free spirited, open minded, aware of his place on the grand arc or history, empathic and compassionate, harboring a lifetime interest in learning. But his passion to produce music sadly never materialized as the responsibilities of life defined the pathway he travelled.
Hoping to avoid corporate life, he decided in 1988 to start his own business in building a financial software platform for the condominium property management sector. This pathway didn’t just materialize out of this air, but rather came through his friendship with Mahmood Devji. The journey started with small steps, but would become the central work of his lifetime. Teaching himself financial accounting and software programming, and developing an understanding of the business side of the business, his creation became known as Constar 2000 and the company he birthed is called Synthesis Microsystems Inc.
Now at its peak, the company serves many clients in Ontario and has throughout its life been a profitable company. This is an astonishing story of persistence, diligence, commitment, client focus, creativity, renewal and that all sprinkled with private hope and ambition. Comprising thousands of lines of code in a complex and highly integrated platform, Constar was Günther’s pride and consumed his mental energy to the last day of his life.
We shouldn’t miss to recognize his other passions. He loved his “girls” which were always a pair of dogs with whom he enjoyed trails and hikes in Ontario. He loved the Muskoka and Algonquin Provincial Park wilderness where he found solace in camping and canoeing always accompanied by his wife Ella. He loved great majestic European sailing ships and was probably a sailor in a previous life which he recreated on his own boats. He enjoyed opera and loved to play piano. And he loved books and his library as these were his window to knowledge and experience that fed his lifetime thirst for learning. He had a wicked sense of humor, loved to laugh, and could easily be bribed with the promise of a delicious sauerbraten dinner which his wife, Ella created so beautifully, replete with all the fixings.
Günther died on 1 March 2022 after a four-week struggle initiated by a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 75. Survived by his loving wife Ella (Konieczna) Steudel and five siblings – Astrid (Steudel) Jackson, Gisela (Steudel) McLaughlin, Helmut, Erik and Ernest Steudel – Günther leaves a legacy of integrity, honor and achievement. These he cultivated in his way, often in contraposition to the methods his father would have prescribed and expected. And to that end, these accomplishments are even more compelling, for he was truly the architect and builder of his life.
We will miss Günther forever. Arrangements entrusted to Chatterson Funeral Home, Collingwood. Remembrances may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation as an expression of sympathy. To share a memory of Günther or send a condolence to his family, please visit www.chattersonfuneralhome.com
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Gunther Paul Steudel 2022..
Death notice for the town of: Collingwood, Province: Ontario