Article by Cameron Kennedy, Life Editor, Red Deer Advocate, Section C1 - Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Red Deer's famous storyteller - Kerry Wood at centre of history celebrations

"Immerse Yourself in the Stories" is the theme of this year's Historic Red Deer Week.

It's fitting then that one of the events commemorates Red Deer's most prolific storyteller, Kerry Wood.

The Kerry Wood Nature Centre celebrates Wood's centenary on June 2 by rededicating Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary.

Jim Robertson, manager of Waskasso Interpretive Programs, says it's important to recognize Wood's accomplishments and the work he left behind for others to do.

Parks and recreation officials preserved a significant portion of Red Deer's natural areas because Wood taught them why it was vital to do so.

"The people who read his books as children are now the people in positions of power to protect the environment," he says.

Born Edgar Allardyce Wood in New York City, Wood was the youngest son of Scottish immigrants. His family settled in Red Deer in 1918.

"The aspiring young writer found Red Deer to be a town of beauty and abundant nature, and the river became one of his favourite exploring areas," wrote Marjorie Wood in a 1976 biography of her famous husband.

Never a fan of his given name, Wood took the nickname Nobby because he had bushy eyebrows like his brother's Airedale. He chose his pen name Kerry, after knob-kerries, a heavy club used by scouts to pound tent pegs.

At age 12, Wood became an honourary Canadian Wildlife Officer and unofficial warden of Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary, a position he held for 43 years.

Rondo Wood says her father's writings about the sanctuary led to the establishment of 26 others across North America.

"He felt his writing role was to tell Western Canadian history in an informal way that people would enjoy."

Wood quit school at age 16 to write full time. He lived off the land outside Red Deer for 20 months to immerse himself in nature.

His experiences of starvation, loneliness and illness formed the basis for his Wild Bill Bumps campfire stories, published by Boy's Life,a monthly magazaine based in New York.

Wood went on to write 25 books, as well as thousands of short stories, articles, weekly newspaper columns and TV and radio scripts.

Mickey The Beaver, Wood's popular account of an injured beaver adopted by a young Red Deer girl, appeared in a Grade 4 reader in 1946.

He won the Governor-General's Medal for Literature twice and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.

He was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1990.

Two of the most gratifying honours Wood received were the Vicky Metcalf Award, which honoured a body of work inspirational to Canadian youth, and the results of an informal survey of librarians in 1969.

It estimated 500,000 children read his books annually.

Wood married Marjorie in 1936. The couple was heavily involved in the Natural Historical Society, later known as the Red Deer River Naturalists.

On the advice of doctors, they moved to a secluded acreage on the river escarpment east of Red Deer because Wood developed complications from mumps. They transformed it into a haven for more than 120 species of birds.

The City of Red Deer named Kerry Wood Drive after him in 1964. The Kerry Wood Nature Centre opened in his honour in 1986. The Marjorie Wood Gallery inside the centre recognized her contributions.

Wood died in Red Deer in July 1998 after a lengthy battle with heart problems and prostrate cancer. He was 91. Marjorie succumbed to bone cancer in September 2002 at the age of 88.

Rondo says her father would be sad to learn that studying nature had become less important in schools. He had very much hoped his work would inspire people to conserve nature.

"We've just about paved paradise, to quote Joni Mitchell," she says.

Robertson knew Wood from 1985 until his death.

If Wood were alive today, he would be amazed by the pace of development and its effect on the natural areas in and around Red Deer, he says.

What he would do is encourage people to explore those natural areas for themselves. Once they knew about the plants and animals that were out there, they wouldn't want to mess it up.

"He was never a tie-yourself-to-a-bulldozer guy," says Robertson. "He was an educator."

The fifth annual Historic Red Deer Week is on May 26 to June 2. More than 90 events are planned in the region.

The celebration of Kerry Wood's centenary begins at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre at 8 a.m. with a pancake breakfast.

Other festivities include birthday cake, nature walks, building tours, presentations by Rondo Wood and a rededication ceremony in honour of the relocation of the sanctuary's original entrance markers.

The day wraps up with a barbecue. Donations are appreciated.

For more information, call Sheryl Krill at 347-1662 or visit www.historicreddeerweek.com.

Contact Cameron Kennedy at ckennedy@reddeeradvocate.com