Calgary park dedicated to Paul Wilkinson, the ‘king of Kensington’

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Paul Wilkinson likely spent nights sleeping rough in the Kensington park that will soon bear his name.

Known around the neighbourhood as Smokey, Wilkinson was a fixture in the Hillhurst/Sunnyside community for years, sporting a Johnny Cash T-shirt and a reputation for generosity. He often panhandled on the streets to get by, but he was also well known for handing out loonies to kids and offering spontaneous gifts to friends.

When there was a wedding at Hillhurst United Church, he was known to deliver a card full of good wishes from strangers, notes he’d solicited from random people walking around.

His friend, Bryce Paton, remembers Wilkinson arriving on his doorstep one year with a Christmas tree. Its origins remain a mystery to this day.

Wilkinson is one of six Calgarians on the latest list of names being added to parks across the city, honouring their community contributions. But his park, at the corner of Memorial Drive and 14th Street N.W., stands out as the first in Calgary to be named after someone experiencing homelessness.

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“I’m sure Smokey laid on his back staring at the stars there many a night,” Paton said.

Wilkinson died in 2017, when he was 52, after a drug overdose — one of the many lives lost to the dangerously tainted drug supply in Alberta. His funeral packed the pews at Hillhurst United amid an outpouring of love from the community. They shared memories and sang his favourite hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross.”

John Pentland, the church’s lead minister, said naming a local park for Wilkinson is a fitting tribute.

“He was the king of Kensington,” he says. “That was his neighbourhood. He knew it better than anybody — every nook and cranny.”

Pentland said Wilkinson was beloved around the neighbourhood because of his honesty. He showed up just as he was: sometimes he arrived at a church service barefoot. Sometimes he’d answer rhetorical questions from the sermon out loud.

“I think he inspired people to lighten up and treat people as human beings. He would say, ‘Often people walk down the street, and they avoid eye contact with homeless people. I just like it when they say hi. It’s not that hard.’”

But people in the neighbourhood watched Wilkinson go through rough times too. At times, he was in and out of jail or rehab, and Paton said there were days he’d get frustrated and avoid him. But he’d always go looking for him again, checking to make sure he was OK.

Wilkinson’s sister, Carolyn Whitmee, said she learned a lot more about her brother and the community around him after his death. He was the youngest of five siblings, born in Ontario. But while all the others were raised by other family members, he was raised by their mother, who struggled with addictions herself.

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“He never really had a chance,” Whitmee said.

But she thinks Wilkinson would be thrilled at the idea of a park with his name on it. She’s hoping to come to Calgary to see it when it’s officially dedicated.

“He was a homeless soul, but he did make something of himself there,” she says.

Paton took the lead on the effort to dedicate the park in Wilkinson’s name when the city put out a call for applications in 2019. One of Wilkinson’s friends from the streets had previously floated the idea of naming the alley behind the church after him.

He says he’s grateful for the lessons Smokey taught him, and that he taught others too.

“Not everybody who lives on the street wants to move to a three-bedroom house in the suburbs,” he says. “That is a life that they both tolerate and embrace.

“I also learned that when it comes to addiction, boy, don’t be judging. I’ve seen Paul and others try really, really, really hard with just excellent supports and agencies to help them get dry and sober.

“And it’s really tough for them.”

More parks with new names

Here are the five other notable Calgarians who will have parks dedicated in their names:

Dr. Leslie Allen

A park just north of Shawnee Boulevard at Shawnee Street S.W. will be named after Dr. Leslie Allen, a former assistant and chief medical officer of health for the City of Calgary in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s who successfully pushed for early access to the polio vaccine for Calgary children.

Mary and Catherine Barclay

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The Barclay sisters were Calgary teachers who helped found the Canadian Hostelling Association. Their names will be on a small green space at 3rd Street and Crescent Road N.W.

Craig Reid

Craig Reid, who died in 2009, was an alderman for 15 years and served in roles including the executive director of the John Howard Society of Alberta and the director of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. His park runs along 46th Avenue and 17th Street S.W.

Verna Reid

Verna Reid Park will be located south of Acton Avenue S.W., between 15th and 16th Street — just a couple blocks from the park named for her husband. Reid has been called a trailblazer for women in the arts and arts education, and she was a faculty member at the Alberta College of Art from 1967 to 1994.

Lois Szabo

Szabo is a founding member of Calgary’s first gay club, Club Carousel, which helped form the political foundation of the gay rights movement across Western Canada in the 1970s. She led the Calgary Pride Parade as the grand marshal in 2017. A new park in the Beltline at 9th Street and 16th Avenue S.W. will be named the Lois Szabo Commons.

masmith@postmedia.com

Twitter: @meksmith