It’s tough for those who didn’t know Mayor Paul Krauskopf to picture him as a jolly pirate tri-clops.
Yet there he was, smiling, wearing a pirate doo-rag and an eye patch on his forehead in a photo greeting guests as they arrived for his funeral at Morinville’s St. Jean Baptiste Church Friday.
The picture fits him perfectly, said Gerry Gaetz, his friend of 53 years.
“He liked having fun. He was liked by darn near everyone in town,” Gaetz said.
Some 500 people filled the pews for the funeral service of Paul Raymond Arthur Krauskopf, who died June 30 at age 63 after a long battle with colon cancer. A lifelong town resident who served with the town’s fire department, library board, and many other community organizations, Krauskopf served 14 years on town council, and was the first mayor of Morinville to die while still in office.
After a service conducted by Bishop Paul Terrio, town Fire Chief Ron Cust and an honour guard of firefighters escorted Krauskopf’s ashes to the town’s cemetery in the town’s vintage 1950s Dodge fire truck – a truck similar to the ones Krauskopf used while he was with the department. Draped over the truck’s passenger side door was the dress coat Krauskopf wore as deputy fire chief.
Stephen Dafoe, editor of The Morinville News, praised Krauskopf in his eulogy for his decades of service to his community.
“Paul Krauskopf was our finest example of what it means to be a citizen,” Dafoe said.
But if his passion for the public was great, Dafoe said, his love for his family was limitless.
“Paul’s dedication to his family was at the core of what he was.”
He was a gentle man who rarely raised his voice, Dafoe said, needing only a disapproving glance to bring his eight daughters in line. He loved to let his kids swing off his arms and curl his hair, and kept every card, ashtray and trinket they ever made. His family nicknamed him “Turtle,” and wore turtle-rings to remember him.
Dafoe said one of his favourite stories about Krauskopf hearkens back to the man’s childhood, when Krauskopf would paddle bits of the town’s wooden sidewalk down Main Street when it flooded due to rain. Often paddling alongside him was childhood friend RenĂ© Chevalier.
“We did a lot of crazy things together,” he said at the reception after the service at the Community Cultural Centre. One of his fondest memories of the man was seeing him in his Scout uniform saluting as then-prime minister John Diefenbaker came to town.
Krauskopf was a dedicated leader and volunteer from a young age, Chevalier said, a fact he attributed to the man’s civic-minded parents.
“He was a guy you could depend upon.”
Cust recalled spending many fun evenings as a firefighter with Krauskopf at local watering holes and pizza parlours as they waited for the call to action.
“We knew he always had our backs,” Cust said.
Krauskopf was a big man in size and spirit, Cust said, the former of which once landed him in trouble. He was climbing a ladder up to the roof of the town’s hockey arena as part of a training exercise, Cust recalled, with a smile, when the ladder broke under him.
“He had to hold the ladder together so we could get another ladder to get him down.”
He also had a calming effect on everyone, Cust continued.
“He was always doing the right thing, and in doing the right thing he was at peace with himself,” he said – which could explain his ever-present smile.
Krauskopf would always step up for his community and had planned to host last week’s Canada Day event despite his health, said former town councillor Joe Gosselin, who delivered the eulogy along with Dafoe.
“Maybe a fault of his was that he couldn’t say no,” Gosselin said.
Krauskopf was a man who “bled Morinville,” Cust said, and that may be his greatest legacy: “a model of the best a citizen can be.”
Krauskopf is survived by his wife, Linda, eight daughters, seven grandchildren, three siblings and his father, Art. The Paul Krauskopf Trust Fund has been established at the Morinville Servus Credit Union outlet.
