bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 3 (2001) — Fall 2001 // Automne 2001, p. 29
Christian, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, sailor, air and marine navigator, cyclist, fisherman, skier, writer and commentator, epicure, political and economic analyst, foreign service officer emeritus, senior public servant, Ambassador of Canada, founding member of RHOMA and maker of truly memorable braised ribs. I leave to each of you which of his roles you wish to remember him by. I think Russ himself would have been equally pleased to be remembered by any one of them.
Russ McKinney was what an earlier generation described as ’the finest of fellows- —he truest of the true.’ Anyone meeting Russ for the first time would immediately want him for a friend. He had a distinctive and compelling personality. He was someone you sensed had substance and strength as well as warmth and wit, often tinged with irony and almost always with a touch of good-natured mischief.
What a joy it was to talk to him about any issue. You knew he would test the limits of logic as well as the possibility of absurdity, since he saw the world for what it could be as well as for what it was. Yet there was no cynicism. As one of his pupils over the last 36 years, I have marvelled at how enthusiastically he addressed problems. He believed that if you got the question right, then you were well on your way to the answer. And what rigour he brought to analysis, what grace he brought to writing it up, and what clarity he brought to the remedy to get past any further roadblocks ahead
Russ started out life in New Brunswick, where he was one of the youngest high school graduates ever. He then worked in a bank for a few years until he was old enough to join the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII. After the war, he pursued his studies at Dalhousie University and then went on to join External Affairs. A brilliant career awaited him as he made his way around the world from Belgrade, Jakarta, Copenhagen and Washington to Port-of-Spain, Paris and Mexico City. He was a key player in the negotiation of the Auto Pact Agreement, one of the seminal events of 20th century Canadian history, and an indefatigable participant in the uniquely sensitive energy negotiations of the ’80s.
I first met Russ in the Caribbean, where he took the High Commission in Port-of- Spain from a relatively calm mission of 22 on arrival to seventy-odd on departure. It was a voyage, and literally that, with nine West Indian islands to cover, filled with great affection for the region, much shared laughter and we hoped, most of the time anyway, one of creative contribution. The whole idea of a mission-administered aid fund, for instance, began with a recommendation from Russ, although he was less successful with his recommendation that Canada buy the Bluenose and give it to the High Commissioner in Trinidad to use in visiting his parish. The West Indies remained for both of us a region of the world that marked us forever and created a unique bond of shared knowledge and experience that most of the rest of the world just wasn’t wise or alert enough to figure out and appreciate.
That’s how I also got to know Chloe and Jane and Mark and Nicholas. They all welcomed me into their family life and there was a lot of visitation to each other’s houses, which Chloe always described as ’church suppers’ The intellectual flair with which Chloe and Russ surrounded their family is reflected in the imagination and integrity their beloved children have brought to their own lives.
Throughout his diplomatic career Russ was always thought of as a professional’s professional. He had the straight goods and negotiated how and when to dress them up. He has left us now and cannot be replaced, though his acolytes abound, and hopefully they in turn have passed on some of what he taught them to those who followed.
Russ’ retirement years were among his happiest. That’s when he got into some serious bouts of sailing, which friends lived vicariously through his funny and oh so readable journals of the voyage. When on land he became the founder of the ROMPERS — the Rockcliffe/Manor Park Exercise Regime on Skis — an organization that had the singularly stark motto of ’Are you ready to ROMP?’ As you can see, this organization was designed to deal with elements of aging other than those which might be associated with its ambiguous acronym.
Russ also found time to marshal his very considerable vocabulary to sharpen debate on the great issues of the day through the Internet and, more than once, brought a little sanity to the readers of our major newspapers with pithy, pointed letters that struck a chord of authority with those genuinely interested in the facts. It is a good thing he had all of those interests because otherwise he might have spent more time at the White Pines Fishing Club and left even fewer trout there for others to catch on his departure.
Russ’ final days were not dominated by great pain, but he knew that he was going and must have lost some of the optimism that so characterized him. If he did, he certainly kept it hidden from me since he always seemed the same old Russ during my visits, just increasingly physically weaker. Chloe’s monumental dedication and attention clearly bolstered his resolve to carry on until the end, without elaborate mourning, and be ready to meet his Maker. To Chloe and to Jane, Mark and Nicholas and their spouses and children, and to his brothers, we offer our deepest condolences on the passing of a truly remarkable man. Everyone is special at their death but Russ McKinney was special his whole life.
All of us can, I hope, take some comfort that God, in his mercy and justice, will ensure in the hereafter that Russ has a fishing rod and some bait handy, for the moments he’s not at the helm of a 36 ft. sloop in the Trinidad-Grenada race, negotiating that tricky passage around Kick’em Jenny on the way to Carioucou.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 3 (2001) — Fall 2001 // Automne 2001, p. 29. Read the rest of this issue →
