Eileen Collins
Special to Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 14/02) - The North's only Rhodes scholar, Kenneth Conibear, died at the age of 95 on Oct. 4 in Vancouver.

Ken Conibear was an outdoorsman and nature lover. Here he's seen out in his canoe in the late 1980s. Conibear and his family settled in Fort Resolution in 1912. - photo courtesy of Marilyn Conibear

Ken was born in Orrville, Ont. in 1907. Destiny and parental decisions intervened in Ken's life when he was only five. His parents moved the family of six to Fort Resolution in 1912.

After travelling by train to Edmonton from Parry Sound, they took a stagecoach to Athabasca Landing and boarded a barge carrying freight to Fort Resolution.

It is believed that this was the first white family, independent of government, religious organization or trading company to settle in the Territories. The family lived in a log cabin on the Nagel Channel near Fort Resolution and eventually settled in Fort Smith.

Ken, and his siblings Jack, Frank, Mabel and Doris, were home-schooled by their mother Ada, who was a nurse, and father Lewis, a marine engineer, and family friends.

When Ken was 19, he and his sister Mabel went to Edmonton to finish Grades 11 and 12. They entered the University of Alberta and Ken majored in English and philosophy. He was selected as the Alberta Rhodes Scholar in 1931. Conibear Lake in Wood Buffalo National Park was named for Ken to honour his achievement.

Studied at Oxford

Ken left Canada to study English at Oxford University in England. The next three years were spent writing. To keep his head above water, he sold vacuum cleaners. His first novel Northland Footprints was published in 1936, earning him favourable reviews, one of which called him "The Kipling of the North."

Ken and Grey Owl shared the same publisher, Lovat Dickson. Ken was hired by Dickson to manage Grey Owl's last tour of England. Because they were close, Ken was considered an expert on Grey Owl and was often consulted by the media and writers.

In 1938, the call of the North brought Ken back to the Northwest Territories. Northward to Eden was published and in 1940 Ken and his brother Frank, inventor of the "Conibear Trap" and also a writer, collaborated on the novel, Husky.

Ken had many careers - writer, hunter, trapper, and storekeeper. After several years in the navy, he captained freight boats on the Mackenzie River. This gave him the material for his book Arctic Adventures with the Lady Greenbelly, Ken's name for his rather cumbersome motorized barge. He ran a fish packer in the fishing industry in Hay River where some old timers remember Ken very well.

When Ken left the North, he served as executive secretary of the British Columbia Hospital Association. He was an English instructor, departmental assistant and student advisor in Simon Fraser University's (SFU) English department, lecturer in continuing education for senior citizens in English and in retirement, program co-ordinator in the Dean of Arts Office and, until his death, honourary associate director of SFU's senior citizens certificate program. His book The Nothing Man was privately published in 1995.

Ken's heart was in the North. He returned a few years ago to visit Fort Smith, the town that named a park and a street after his family. He flew out to the lake that bears his name. In Hay River, an evening was organized at the library where he gave a short talk and visited with friends.

Visitors welcome

If you ever had the pleasure of visiting Ken and his wife Marilyn at their home in Vancouver, you would have been treated to a tour of Ken's 'Great Wall of Vancouver.' It was hand-made by Ken out of cement slabs he mixed himself. Imbedded in the cement were stones collected during his travels, including some from the Northwest Territories.

Another slab has the name "Home Range" carved in it and several fuses from an old stove on display.

A bench placed on the ocean shore invites people walking along the beach to stay and rest awhile. Your evening meal might have been accompanied by a salad made from Ken's garden with nasturtiums petals sprinkled throughout.

Ken was a kind and gentle man who accomplished many things. Among these was his ability to make friends. He often invited people walking on the beach to visit his home and to view the wall. He was intellectually disciplined, a friend to mankind and nature, a lover of the language and possessed a kind and patient nature laced with gentle humour. His first wife, Barbara, and son Peter predeceased him.

His wife Marilyn, his son John and wife Laura, his three grandchildren and six great grandchildren and his many friends will sadly miss him.