Helmut Eduard Wegenschimmel

With much sadness we announce the passing of Helmut Eduard Wegenschimmel on the evening of June 7th, 2025 at Credit Valley Hospital following a short illness. Helmut slipped away peacefully in the company of his wife, sons, and daughter-in-law while listening to a selection of his favourite songs.

Beloved husband of Elizabeth Wegenschimmel (nee McNeil) for 48 years, he is also survived by his three sons, Neil Helmut, Sean Daniel (Lindsay), and Carl-Adam (Kunsang), to whom he was a devoted father. He was also Opa to two grandchildren, Sorley and Kielan, whom he loved very much. Loving brother to Rudolph, Wilfried (Renate), and Lieslelotte of Austria, and brother-in-law to George (Elaine), Tom (Jean), and Dan (Karen). Son of the late Gustav and Antonia (nee Mitterwachauer), son-in-law to the late Daniel and Margaret McNeil (nee McBarron), and step-son of Maria Wegenschimmel. He will also be very missed by many nieces and nephews in both Canada and Austria, as well as other extended family and a great number of friends.

Helmut was born in Weyer, district of Steyr-Land, in Allied-occupied Upper Austria on May 29th, 1954. He lost his mother when he was 14 months old and was raised by his father and grandparents with some assistance from the Nagler family. Helmut was naturally gifted and enjoyed learning, often completing his classmates’ math homework for them so they could go out to play. He went on to become a chef’s apprentice at the School of Trades for Hotel and Restaurant in Tyrol, Austria, before taking his first job in Zurich, Switzerland in 1972.

In 1974 he immigrated to Canada where he met Elizabeth during an Oom Pah Pah night at a German pub in the Toronto Dominion Centre. Though he had little grasp of English, he was a skilled dancer and was able to impress her by requesting a dance and instructing her to simply do the box step.

Helmut had a successful career in the gourmet food hospitality industry, working as a chef at the Windsor Arms, Constellation, and Prince hotels in Toronto for a number of years, before working as an instructor at Humber College, a chef at Ontario Place, and then a decade long stint as the Executive Chef at the Nottawasaga Inn. In 2005 he won the Escoffier Society Chef of the Year award for Toronto. He became a Canadian citizen in 2017, forty years after he first came to Canada.

In spite of limited educational opportunities, he enjoyed a lifelong love of learning and read widely and deeply in many areas. He particularly enjoyed history, politics, and economics (and occasionally science fiction), which he loved to debate and discuss—often quizzing and playfully teasing his children and Scottish in-laws in the process.

He enjoyed music and had a wide-ranging taste that he imparted to his kids. They ultimately went in their own directions but became musical people in their own ways in large part because of his influence, though some of their noisier preferences were often a bridge too far even for someone with otherwise eclectic tastes. He had an artistic soul and loved to garden, cultivating the most beautiful yard in the neighbourhood.

Helmut was an avid downhill skier and golfer, as well as a fan of many sports including soccer and tennis. He got into hockey after coming to Canada and kept his faith with the Toronto Maple Leafs… at least until the recent 2025 playoffs because enough already. In recent weeks he vowed that he would only watch the Edmonton Oilers going forward — we should all be so wise.

Friends will be received at the Jones Funeral Home, 11582 Trafalgar Rd., Georgetown on Friday June 13th from 5:00pm - 8:00 pm.  A Celebration of Life will be held in the chapel on Saturday June 14th, at 11:00 am.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Sick Kids hospital. This was a favourite charity of Helmut’s as he was nearly taken by severe illness as a young boy but for the intervention of an American doctor in Vienna many years ago to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.