Honouring Kent Sedgwick eight months after his death, with the launch of a book he authored, dovetails into the way he lived and the legacy he left behind.
Sedgwick was an award-winning local history writer. By day, he was a senior official in the City of Prince George planning department since 1983, and before that, since 1970, he was a geography instructor at CNC. But in almost every spare moment of time he was crafting documentaries on interesting elements of Prince George's past. He did it so often and artfully that he became part of Prince George's history himself.
"He was a historian with passion," said Prince George travel writer Vivien Lougheed, who also delves into local history in her own writings. "When he found some new topic, he would spend hours in the archives digging and digging."
His last published book, Lheidli T'enneh Cemetary, Prince George, was unveiled on Wednesday. For his widow Sue, the book brings back memories of his happy hours squirreling away in his study or on research field trips.
"It was fun for me. It was part of Kent and I knew that from the very beginning," Sue said. "We spent many good times on road trips so he could find things out for his projects. He saw things differently. He could walk into a forest and find old roads in the way the trees had grown. He could see the history in the land that no one else noticed. That was fun for me. I learned a lot from him."
She also remembers how giving her husband was with his skills and knowledge. Other historians, college and university students, city staff, news reporters and complete strangers would call him up with all kinds of questions and Sedgwick would endeavour to answer them all.
His chosen profession and his off-hours passion were complimentary, she added.
"He loved his day job. It was planning the community. He was motivated differently than most people. He worked very hard because he was interested in it so deeply. More than a job, more than a hobby, it was his life."
Even while fighting cancer late last year, he could not let go of his historical pursuits. On this book in particular he kept his focus. Sue said he had about three months of time to finish the cemetery story, and although some of the polishing was left to others, he completed the bulk of the work to his own satisfaction.
His two favourite projects, however, went heavily researched but unwritten. Sue said his two biggest obsessions were a biography of George M. Dawson, the five-foot tall 19th century explorer and surveyor of the local region, whose name belongs to the city of Dawson Creek, and the tale of local real estate investment and Scottish settler campaign in the local area by Great Britain's wealthy Duke of Sutherland, also known as the Duke of Strathnaver, the namesake of the local community just south of this city. He willed his entire collection of research on these topics to UNBC Archives for others to take up the mission.
Another writer inspired by Sedgwick, Prince George author of fiction and historical non-fiction John Harris, wrote a commemorative forward in this last book by Sedgwick. In addition to sharing a passion for the pen, they were also colleagues at CNC for many years.
"It was a great honour to have my words in Kent's book," Harris said. He praised Segwick's penchant for teaching research processes, civil engagement processes and how to consider land use as much as he exercised those skills himself.
One who worked closely with Sedgwick in both of his career paths at CNC and the City of Prince George was retired mayor John Backhouse.
"I think that is precisely why he was unique - his experience as a geographer and a planner, and someone interested in local history," Backhouse said. "He was very sensitive to City Hall's planning decisions having the proper historical context. He put the same level of research into something as seemingly simple as street names as he did in the preservation of individual buildings, the character of neighbourhoods and the features of new developments."
Backhouse said elected officials have their own perceptions and views, and also gather public input, but on all major decisions it is essential to consider the professional opinion of municipal staff who have been intrinsically tied to the issues. "I always found Kent's advise to be thorough, thoughtful, and based on sound principals."
On the occasion of the Lheidli T'enneh cemetery book launch, published by CNC Press, college board chair Bob Murray said "It was a sad day for the community when we lost our historical geographer in residence" but noted that through his books, his legacy, as well as the topics between the pages, would live on.
