SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Walter "Wally" Maduke was the kind of guy who "once you got to know him, you didn't need to know anybody else," says one of his best friends, George Tuccaro.
Walter Maduke: "Wally" passed away in his sleep, having suffered a heart attack in Calgary Feb. 28. - |
The 81-year-old passed away "quickly and peacefully in his sleep" on Feb. 28, having suffered a heart attack in Calgary, according to his son, Mike Maduke. Tuccaro, the outgoing Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, said his long-time companion who was known for founding the Ragged Ass Road Shoppe and as the manager of the Hudson's Bay Store in Yellowknife before it closed.
And, he will be sorely missed.
"I call him the best salesman the Hudson's Bay Store every had," said Tuccaro fondly. "He was the kind of guy where you could walk into the Bay with no intention of buying anything, but leave with an armful of stuff you didn't need."
Mike Maduke said the family is upset and not quite ready to talk about their loss but responding by e-mail he stated his father was "spiritual, a true student of life until the very end."
Born in rural Manitoba in 1934, Walter was the eldest of a brood of five children raised by a pair of first generation Ukrainian Canadians.
He began a 30-year-career with the Hudson's Bay Company at age 20, travelling to his first assignment at the southern tip of James Bay, in Moosonee, Ont
Maduke worked for the Bay in Ile-a-la-Crosse, Sask.; Thompson, Man.; Nipigon, Ont.; Sioux Lookout, Ont.; and in Churchill, Man.
He settled with his wife, Yvonne, and three sons - Joe, Mike and John - in the North in 1972, wrote Mike, spending a year in Hay River before sinking their roots in Yellowknife.
Tuccaro said he met Maduke in the early 1970s, and knew him as a kind and good-humoured man.
"He'll be dearly missed because there's a lot of people who got to know Wally," he said. "They'd agree with me that he was a very nice person."
Initially managing the city's Hudson's Bay store, Maduke became a member and the director of the Worker's Compensation Board, and formed his records management company, Mike said. The Ragged Ass Road Shoppe - notable for its namesake connection with the iconic Old Town street - opened after Maduke founded Lake Awry Cap & Crest Promotions in 1979, said Mike, who runs the shop today with his brother Joe Maduke.
Walter always loved baseball, Mike said, and spent many years curling with the Elks.
"In the 1970s, he helped found Yellowknife's first organized old-timers recreational hockey club, the Ol' Blasters," wrote Mike, adding his father organized and promoted charity hockey events in the city, and arranged the many visits of the Flying Fathers hockey club - a team of Canadian Roman Catholic priests who have, since 1973, toured the continent playing fundraiser games against local teams.
Despite his long list of commitments, Mike wrote that when he had free time, his father headed out to his cabin retreat on Awry Lake, where he seldom visited without canine accompaniment.
"(He) cherished his cabin retreat on Awry Lake, whether alone, or with man's best friend, or in the close company of friends and family," wrote Mike.
Tuccaro said he'll miss having long chats with Walter while on the dock at the cabin - about an 18-minute flight northeast of the city.
"We'd sit at the dock and just talk. It's a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city," he said. "I'm going to miss that. Every time I get to that lake I'll be thinking of him."
He said he remembers the biggest trout living in the lake, according to Walter, was an old 20-pounder called "Wally."
"We never did catch it," said Tuccaro.
In recent years, Walter travelled to the U.S. to see his favourite baseball parks, Mike said, and visited friends and family living in the Prairies.
"He would use his second home in Calgary as a start-off point to visit family and friends," wrote Mike. "He had just completed one of these trips when he passed away in his bed in Calgary."
