Features

  • News Desk
  • News Briefs
  • News Summaries
  • Columnists
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Arctic arts
  • Readers comment
  • Find a job
  • Tenders
  • Classifieds
  • Subscriptions
  • Market reports
  • Northern mining
  • Oil & Gas
  • Handy Links
  • Construction (PDF)
  • Opportunities North
  • Best of Bush
  • Tourism guides
  • Obituaries
  • Feature Issues
  • Advertising
  • Contacts
  • Archives
  • Today's weather
  • Leave a message


    NNSL Photo/Graphic

  • NNSL Logo .
    Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall text Text size Email this articleE-mail this page

    Department mourns firefighter

    Lauren McKeon
    Northern News Services
    Published Wednesday, September 3, 2008

    SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - One of the many things deputy fire chief Gerta Groothuizen fondly remembers about her former colleague Clem St. Croix is that Clem was a clown - literally.

    NNSL Photo/Graphic

    Clem St. Croix holds his third and final Clumsy the Clown book, Clumsy's Trip to the Hospital. - NNSL file photo

    Years before St. Croix's 2005 retirement, he donned a pair of trousers five times too big sewn by fellow firefighter Mike Lowing's mother, a huge wig, a band-aid speckled shirt and a red nose and became Clumsy the Clown.

    The hapless figure was employed by the fire department first during fire prevention week at schools in the late 1990s and then for various other safety promotion events.

    "I was a presenter and I needed somebody that could get in the clown's costume and not act like an adult but act like a big overgrown kid with a purpose to promote safety," recalled Lowing.

    "Clemie came walking in the room and I had these big, huge trousers ... and I said 'Hey, those look pretty good.' I found my man very quickly."

    "It was great," said Groothuizen of the time she first saw St. Croix as Clumsy at a parade.

    He "was there beside Sparky the Fire Dog in the parade handing out candy and being a joy to see."

    St. Croix went on to pen three safety-centred books featuring Clumsy.

    He told Yellowknifer in 2005, "I enjoy seeing the smiles it brings to (children's) faces when they recognize Clumsy."

    St. Croix died last Wednesday at noon at age 43, after a long battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).

    It was the development of that disease which forced St. Croix to retire from the Yellowknife Fire Department in 2005 after being with the department since 1984.

    St. Croix joined the Yellowknife Fire Department along with Lowing that year, both as volunteers.

    In 1987, he became full-time and made the move to career firefighter. After a small stint with the Yellowknife airport division, St. Croix returned to the department, working his way up from lieutenant to deputy fire chief, a position he took in 2001.

    It was a job he loved, said Chucker Dewar, another co-worker and longtime friend.

    "I watched him come to work and to get to his office he would crawl from the entrance right to his desk if he had to.

    "He was that dedicated to the fire service and to the citizens of Yellowknife."

    This reflected St. Croix's overall approach to life.

    "Clem was a real people person, " said Dewer. "He would invite people over for lunch - strangers even - and get to know them and find out what they're all about."

    "Clem used to have an expression and he used to say, 'It's all good, it's all good,' when things were really bad," added Lowing.

    That was also his approach to MS.

    "Many days were very hard painful days for him and the only way you could really tell was to look into his eyes. You could see it in his eyes, but you'd never hear it in your ears," said Lowing.

    "Because it started to curve down in his legs and his hip he always used to say to me, 'All we got to do is give me an old caribou leg and I'll be okay.'"

    St. Croix's death was "expected," said Groothuizen, "but not expected so soon."

    "We hadn't realized (his MS) had gotten to this point," she added, noting it isn't certain yet the disease was what killed St. Croix in the end.

    Multiple sclerosis is not a fatal disease for the vast majority of people who have it, according to the MS Society of Canada.

    However, there are types which can consistently and continuously worsen, causing death.

    St. Croix was divorced and lived in his Yellowknife home with his two teenage daughters, one of whom was on her way to university when St. Croix died.

    Funeral details have yet to be released, but Dewar said a celebration of life ceremony will be held Friday afternoon at the Adlair Hanger at the Yellowknife airport.

    "Clem, he wasn't the mopey type, he didn't like people to be sad," said Dewar of the choice. "He would like things real upbeat and positive."