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Where there's a will...

Apex's biggest estate sale draws mixed reactions

Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 08/01) - William "Bill" MacKenzie's otherwise private life became a public spectacle during his estate sale last month.



Cody Keneally carries a mirror bought by a friend at Bill MacKenzie's Sept. 29 estate sale. A long-standing Bill MacKenzie friend, Keneally was openly critical of the garage sale atmosphere surround the sale. - Kirsten Murphy/NNSL photo



MacKenzie died in June of natural causes at the age of 62. The respected and long-standing Iqaluit-Apex resident was an avid collector. Some say the bearded Scotsman's obsession collecting riv-alled only his story-telling.

More than $4,000 was raised from the sale. People gleefully hauled out his furniture, his books and his dinner plates. Many simply wanted a reminder of Bill -- something his cluttered, dusty shelves amply provided.

Not everyone was particularly pleased by the flea-market atmosphere, but close to 1,000 people traipsed through his house that day.

"I don't have a problem with the sale, per se," said Cody Kenneally, one of MacKenzie's oldest friends. "But people going through his personal things, he wouldn't have liked it,"

MacKenzie did not leave a will. Thus, the advent of Apex's largest and most eclectic estate sale ever.

"You have to look at the alternative. People wouldn't have been any happier if his things had been (thrown) out," said Doug Wallace, public trustee.

"We would have lost money if we had to move it and then sell it."

Another sale, to dispose of his remaining belongings, is scheduled this month.

Iqaluit buzzed with news of the sale in advance. People even lined up early to get the prime pickings.

MacKenzie's Scotland-based brother, Lachlan, instructed a public trustee to oversee the estate. The absence of a will, the sheer volume of belongings and the distance precipitated the decision, Lachlan said earlier this year.

"I'm not sure anyone else would have rather been doing it," Wallace said. "But yes, it's a good idea to make arrangements as to how you want your personal items disposed of in the case of death."

Money raised from his estates goes to paying off debts, such as back taxes.

"We don't expect his assets will exceed his debts," Wallace said.

Bruno Trembly, who purchased a kerosene heater, summed it up best. "He was a good man and everybody loved him. Most people came to something to have remember him by."