Hans Dietrich Birk, Canada's premier heraldic artist, died on May 9th, 1997, age 80, active to the last day designing and researching heraldry. Hans was born in Nagold, Wuerttemberg, Germany on Aug. 2, 1916. His maternal ancestors included Otto von Alberti, the archivist and author of "Wuerttembergisches Adels und Wappenbuch" 1889-1898.

Although heraldry was a hobby and a passion for Hans for more than 50 years, it was also a means of survival during the last days of WWII. After distinguished service as an air communications officer in the Luftwaffe, Hans occupied himself in 1945 in Stade, Germany, painting town shields and regimental badges for the British occupation troops to feed his young family. In 1947 he opened a graphic arts studio in Nagold, but the war-torn economy could not support an artistic career.

Emigrating to Canada in 1952, Hans worked for a while in graphic arts and drafting, then became financially independent as a real estate broker. Heraldry allowed him to survive the cycles of sales booms and droughts by giving him peace of mind and the patience to wait for homebuyers. While other sales staff fretted and frittered away their time waiting to pounce on customers, Hans painted state and town shields in oil. This work became the basis of early lectures in heraldry given to the public in local libraries and schools. This attracted media attention and eventually a market for custom heraldic design and artwork.

In the 1970's, Hans co-authored a newspaper column "Your Name" (with the late Rev. James S. McGivern) syndicated by the Toronto Telegram, the fore-runner to the Toronto Sun. The publication of "Your Name and Coat of Arms" in 1971 compiled this weekly series.

Then in 1974 came contracts from the National Archives of Canada to collect and paint the coat of arms of European families. Some 604 armorial bearings were archived in Ottawa, representing one of the first efforts in Canada to establish a national heraldic registry. In 1983, Hans established the Armorial Heritage Foundation to continue this work. On behalf of armigerous families, Hans published their genealogies and coloured renditions of arms in "Armorial Heritage in Canada" (1984) and with Peter B. Merey in "Heraldic/Genealogical Almanac" (1988).

This work became a major force in making a case to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, that the authority for Canadian armorial bearings should be transfered from the College of Arms and the Lord Lyon to the Office of the Governor General. Without a recognition that heraldry in Canada must incorporate all Canadians, not just the two "founding nations" (England, France) it is not likely that Canadian politics could have accepted the Office of Chief Herald. At least in part, the current theme of multi-culturalism practiced by the Canadian Heraldric Authority is the legacy of Hans D. Birk.

Honours and awards

• 1964 Silver Medal, Pacific National Exhibition
• 1971 Silver Medal, Heraldic Art & Research, Duke Phillip v. Wuerttemberg
• 1979 Pro Merito Genealogias, Zentralstelle f.Pers.& Familiengeschichte
• 1980 Medal, Heraldic Art, Catholic Archdiocese, Toronto
• 1980 Distinguished Fellow, American College of Heraldry
• 1981 Fellow, Royal Heraldry Society of Canada
• 1985 Chair No.6, Academie International d' Heraldique
• 1989 Honorary Grant of Arms, Canadian Heraldic Authority, Ottawa