Not many people can claim to have worked in six countries (Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Estonia, and Belgium), as Hillar Tork has. But despite the changes, music and satellites have been constant things in his life.
Hillar Tork, now retired and living in Estonia, was born in New Zealand in 1957. He still remembers his childhood in Auckland, before moving in 1965 at the age of seven with his parents, brothers and sister from New Zealand to Toronto. As was typical at the time, Tork, his siblings, and his parents spoke only Estonian at home. Hillar only started speaking English when he first went to school as a five-year-old.
His parents’ motivation to move to Toronto was that they saw Toronto becoming one of the major centers of “eestlus” (Estonian culture) in the free world, and they wanted their children to grow up in a community where they would be able and motivated to speak Estonian and hopefully, later in life, find Estonian spouses. Unbelievable as it may seem today, the most economic means of travel at the time took the Tork family of six aboard a ship for several weeks, across the Pacific ocean, through the Panama Canal, disembarking in New York City, and travelling the last 800 kilometres to Toronto by Greyhound bus.
As a child, Tork did all of the de rigueur Estonian activities, from attending Peetri Kirik (St. Peter’s Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church; including singing in the legendary youth choir, Lootuse Noortekoor), Estonian primary and secondary schools, and Lembitu scouts, to being both a camper and camp counsellor at Jõekääru Suvekodu (Estonian children’s summer camp). As these were his most formative years, Tork still considers himself to be a Toronto eestlane (Estonian).
“He also toured with the legendary Peeter Kopvillemi band in Estonia in 1989, playing ten concerts across the country, including a sold-out Linnahall in Tallinn… Throughout the six countries Hillar has lived and worked in, he has always played in a band and where possible has sung in the local Estonian choir.”
While attending Victoria Park Secondary School (VPSS), Hillar was very active in the vibrant music department and planned to go on to study music in university. In the school band, he played trombone and later bassoon. It turned out Hillar also had mathematical abilities. After a father-and-son talk (Hillar’s dad was an engineer who learned to play the violin at the Heino Eller Music College in Tartu), Hillar chose to pursue engineering instead, as his father convinced him that it would be a more secure career path and that music could remain his lifelong hobby. And so it went.
Tork completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering (Communications) at University of Toronto. During his university years, he faced a difficult choice of which Selts (society) or Korporatsioon (Estonian fraternity) to join. His grandfather and father both belonged to Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts (EÜS), but Tork’s friends were all in or considering joining one of the other fraternities, which at the time were more active in Toronto. Eventually he chose Korp! Vironia, with no regrets—one of his closest friends to this day is his coetus member [i.e. who joined in the same year and semester] Toomas Põldre, and Hillar continues to participate actively in Vironia activities in Estonia.
After graduating with his Master’s degree in 1983, Hillar moved to the Netherlands thinking he would spend just a couple of years in Europe before returning to Canada. Instead, he landed a great job at ESTEC (the European Space Agency’s Research and Technical Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands), where he worked for the next thirteen years with communications satellites. He would continue working with satellite systems in different countries and capacities, finally, from 2010 until retirement in 2023, on the Galileo programme in the European Commission’s Satellite Navigation Directorate, located in Brussels.
Hillar retained a very strong interest in music and learned to play acoustic guitar, then electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and even a little flute (what Jethro Tull fan did not want to play the flute?). He also toured with the legendary Peeter Kopvillemi band in Estonia in 1989, playing ten concerts across the country, including a sold-out Linnahall in Tallinn. From his secondary school days, Hillar always belonged to or jammed with bands. Throughout the six countries Hillar has lived and worked in, he has always played in a band and where possible has sung in the local Estonian choir.
Hillar first met his Tartu-born wife Imbi through family connections in 1986, and Imbi came to visit him in the Netherlands in 1990. They soon became a couple and married in August, 1991 (for a little extra excitement, nothing like having the Moscow putsch, with Russian tanks rolling into the streets of Tartu, occur during your honeymoon in Paris). They have raised three children, of whom they are very proud. Their son Alari lives in Toronto, Hendrik in Tallinn, and daughter Jaanika in Tartu.n Tartu.
Eesti Elu readers will have the opportunity to meet Hillar in the flesh, as he will be performing in two (not one!) bands at the KESKUS opening events in August. The first band is Le Brünk, from Hillar’s Brussels days, performing Estonian repertoire at the opening event on August 20th. The second band, Atomic Heeringas, will close out the party with an evening of classic rock on Saturday night (August 22nd) and features Hillar’s brother Aarne (who will come into town from British Columbia), Howard Helm (professional rock keyboard player and Hillar’s best friend since high school) and his wife Kathy on vocals, and Denton Young, one-time front man of Canadian Juno-nominated band Zon, in which Howard played keyboards.
Drop by KESKUS on the evening of August 22nd to say hi to Hillar Tork (to discuss music or satellite systems? 😉) and catch up with some other Toronto Estonians returning to the mesipuu or beehive.
Fotogalerii
