Ovid Avarmaa, the last surviving World War II resistance figure and operative of the Estonian National Committee—which fought against both Nazi and Soviet occupations—passed away in Montreal, Canada, at the age of 104.

Avarmaa was born in Tartu, Estonia, on September 24, 1920. The only child of merchant navy captain Niilo Avarmaa (originally Nikolai Akkermann until Estonianization in 1937) and Elizabeth Sokk.

His father, a notable mariner who survived a celebrated shipwreck in 1911, was later arrested by Soviets and spent over a decade in prison camps. Ovid’s wider family included figures such as Taavet Avarmaa (David Akkermann), a jurist and political notable, and cpt Juhan Avarmaa, a military officer.

Avarmaa attended Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in Tartu, graduating from the humanities track in 1938, with particular achievements in music, religious studies, languages, and history. He then entered the law faculty at the University of Tartu in 1938.

Already during his school years, Avarmaa studied at the Tartu Higher Music School and was deeply passionate about jazz: by 1938–39, he played in various orchestras and was the pianist for the renowned Estonian jazz ensemble "Kuldne Seitse" (“Golden Seven”), considered the top Estonian jazz band of the era.

During the war, he became involved with several underground resistance networks, including connections with the Estonian National Committee and intelligence circles. Avarmaa studied for a time in Germany (including military radio operations) and was associated with Estonian student circles aiming to maintain links with the West. Returning to Estonia, he became a radio operator for the resistance and took part in clandestine information channels and communications with the Estonian exile leadership and Western allied governments. He narrowly escaped large-scale Gestapo arrests in 1944 and lived in hiding before finally fleeing to Sweden in September 1944 a week before the Russians invaded again.

In Sweden, Avarmaa quickly became involved in the local Estonian community as a pianist and choir conductor. In 1951, he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he became a leading figure in the city’s Estonian musical and cultural life, teaching jazz and classical music at Dawson College and directing various Estonian choirs. He was remembered by contemporaries as a talented and soulful pianist with an abiding love of jazz.

Avarmaa was also a spiritual seeker: in 1979, alongside Albert Low, he co-founded the Montreal Zen Centre, reflecting his deep engagement with Buddhism.

Fluent in Estonian, English, French, German, Finnish, and Portuguese, Avarmaa was remembered for his vast intellectual curiosity and cosmopolitan interests. He was predeceased by his son Niilo from his first marriage in 2022. His widow, Céline (born 1937), and three stepchildren survive him.