Loved and Respected Young
KCFA Member Dies
--Kirk MacLellan's passing mourned by all--
by Lewis Beck
"Keep the music alive" were Kirk's last words to me in an email I received from him not long before he passed away unexpectedly in June of 2006. We were all shocked and saddened at the news of his passing in Vermillion, AB, where he had gone with his mother Christine to live after she retired from her job in Ft. Smith with Parks Canada. He was one of our staunchest and most reliable young fiddlers and fiddle-teachers.
I first met Kirk in 2003 at P.W. Kaeser High School in Ft. Smith where he was a student. I had been asked to do two fiddle workshops one day in spring at PWK: one workshop in the morning and one in the afternoon. Kirk came to the morning workshop and proved to be such an apt pupil that I asked him to teach the same workshop that afternoon--at least until I had returned from picking up my wife Louise from the airport. When I did return, Kirk was doing such a good job that I let him keep going.
He started taking lessons from me and his early promise as a fiddler and fiddle-teacher was really fulfilled, so much so that I asked him to take over my fiddle classes when I left Ft. Smith to work in Wrigley. This he did, continuing his teaching duties after I returned to Smith some eight months later. He then stayed on, acting as my assistant.
Kirk was nothing if not game. During a break at the Strings Accross the Sky fiddle camp he attended in the summer of 2003 (when he had only been fiddling for a few months), he did a little impromptu busking on the streets of Yellowknife and made enough to go have lunch at McDonalds! He could always be counted upon to pitch in, whether it was for fiddle-teaching work or actually performing; Kirk was always there when needed.
He leaves behind his grieving adoptive mother Christine and many friends here in the Northwest Territories, both former classmates at P.W. Kaeser High School and we, his friends in the Kole Crook Fiddle Association.
On the day of his funeral in Vermilliion a fitting memorial service, organized by Louise Beck at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Ft. Smith, was held for Kirk, attended by his natural father, his other relatives and friends. We also remembered him in Wrigley at the same day and time.
For sure, our friend is "up there" with Kole himself, making better music than ever!
