Chadwick John Kirk Obituary (1936 - 2015)

CHADWICK JOHN KIRK Chadwick Kirk was born in Tacoma, WA on May 11, 1936 to John D. Kirk, Jr. and Blanche Callaghan Kirk; he died in Seattle on Jan. 15, 2015, after a period of declining health. He grew up the 4th of 6 boys in Tacoma, attending Marymount Military Academy and then Lincoln High, where he was a track and football star. While at Lincoln, Chad was the co-captain of the LHS football team which went on to play at the State Championship in 1953. He graduated from Stadium High School in 1954. Chad also worked at his father Johnnie's store, AA Auto Parts, as a teenager. His beloved mother Blanche died when Chad was only 17 years old. In addition to his athletic prowess, Chad was very talented in both music and art. He played piano beautifully, and he especially enjoyed jazz and classical. He also loved painting and won a scholarship to the Burnley School of Art in Seattle in the summer after high school. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army. During his service he was a radio operator in the Signal Corps, eventually stationed in remote Nome, AK. After two years in the military, Chad entered the University of Washington, where he met Jo Ann Bixler, a fellow English major. They married and had two daughters, Tracey and Pandora. Chad had by then decided to pursue architecture as a career, and finished his studies at the U.W. Over the next 30+ years, he worked for a number of well-known Puget Sound area architecture firms, including John Graham & Co., TRA and Callison, among others. His last job before he retired was as the Principal Planner for the City of Ketchikan (Alaska). He was a talented designer and draftsman with many local projects in his portfolio; he also got involved in the early days of historic preservation in both Tacoma and Seattle (including the Save the Pike Place Market Campaign spear-headed by his former professor architect Victor Steinbrueck), as well as Historic Ketchikan. Chad was married several times. He met Victoria Heemstra in the early 1970s and had two sons together, Maximilian and Morgan. They lived a fun and adventurous life together out on Bainbridge Island in a commune setting with several other couples. Chad designed a house which they built on their property together. Chad spent many years commuting to work in downtown Seattle by ferry boat and loved island life. Chad loved the outdoors, especially the Olympic Peninsula, where he grew up hiking, camping and fishing with his large family of brothers in and around the Queets River. He enjoyed taking drives up and around Mt. Rainier the Cascades as well. He continued that tradition with his own kids, taking them out to the mountains and on the water on various trips over the years. He was an avid boater, finally fulfilling a dream of owning a classic wooden yacht, the Gold Dust which he motored up to Ketchikan from Seattle with his last wife, Sandra Jackson. They lived aboard the Gold Dust for some years in Ketchikan in the 1990s. He and Sandra had many adventures together, including trips to Costa Rica and Mexico in the winters to escape the rain. Chad finally retired to Zihuatenejo, Mexico where he lived for several years, enjoying the warm weather and devoting himself to watercolor painting, before returning to Seattle in 2009. There he was able to spend quality time with his adult children and grandchildren. In addition to his four children: Tracey (Michael), Pandora (Jules), Max (Shannon), and Morgan (Coleta), Chad leaves behind his younger brother Rhett Kirk (Grace), grandchildren Ryan Eyre, Danelle Yost, Isabelle Eyre, Madalyn, Finley and Emery Brown, and Kaia Brown, several cousins, nieces and nephews, former wives Victoria Heemstra Doman and Sandra Jackson, as well as younger half-siblings Brian Kirk (of Tacoma) and Lise' Kirk Ohlson (of Fox Island). He was preceded in death by his parents and all of his brothers except for Rhett. There will be a memorial gathering in Chad's honor on March 8th, 2015 at the home of Pandora Eyre, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Please contact her at [email protected] if you are interested in joining us. Hoffner Fisher & Harvey To send a flower arrangement in memory of Chadwick John Kirk, please click here to visit our sympathy store.