Mourners pay tribute to Kwong’s inspiring life
“Fairy tales do come true, it can happen to you, if you’re young at heart.”
At the state memorial for Norman Kwong on Tuesday afternoon, the songs of his favourite crooner, Frank Sinatra, played a feature role. “He actually had a pretty nice singing voice,” Randy Kwong, one of his four sons, said of his dad.
The above song, played while members of his extended family filed in to the chapel at First Alliance Church, in many ways reflected Kwong’s nearly 87 years on the planet.
The football legend, champion of professional sports in the city of his birth, former lieutenantgovernor of Alberta and recipient of the Order of Canada had a life story that rivalled that of the best fairy tale.
He transformed his humble beginnings into phenomenal success in sport, business and public life. Such a feat, said his son Brad, was because his beloved father was a force of nature — not one with the aggression of a tornado, but more “a gentle breeze.”
Since his death on Sept. 3, Kwong’s many accomplishments have been recalled in numerous news reports: first Chinese-Canadian in the Canadian Football League, star player for the Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos, later president of the Stampeders who helped save the franchise from near-demise — the list is so lengthy, it would take up all the words this writer is allotted here.
At his memorial, though, many revelations about Kwong the man — the friend, the husband, father and grandfather — were gifted to those in attendance who weren’t fortunate enough to know him personally.
Those stories came from a wide variety of people from the many parts of the life of the man known to friends and family as Normie.
Alberta’s current Lt. Gov. Lois Mitchell teared up when she recalled her several decades of friendship with Kwong, who taught everyone around him how to be genuinely kind. “He was the same person, whether he was relaxing with his family, mixing with members of the business community . . . or chatting with the Queen of England,” said Mitchell, who powered through her tears to talk about Kwong’s uniqueness. “Normie overcame many obstacles in his life and turned them into opportunities.”
Her husband, Doug Mitchell, also fighting back tears, elicited laughter from the crowd when he recalled the first time he met Kwong: “He ran over me on the football field and nearly ended my football career.”
Mitchell, former commissioner of the CFL, described a goodhumoured friend who lived with great integrity and honesty, who treated all with respect whether it was on the football field, in business or in his duties as the Queen’s viceregal representative in Alberta.
“He knew the importance in business and life of relationships and working with others,” said Mitchell. “Despite all Normie’s amazing accomplishments, he always maintained his humble ways, no matter who he was talking to.”
Premier Rachel Notley reminded the approximately 350 mourners of the racism Chinese-Canadians like Kwong have historically faced, calling him a person who defined “what it means to be Albertan.”
Former prime minister Stephen Harper also reminded the mourners of those obstacles, saying that playing on a CFL team was something “inconceivable for a Chinese-Canadian 100 years ago.” He also spoke of Kwong’s many charitable causes, which contributed to his being given the Order of Canada in 1998.
Wally Buono recalled Kwong’s quiet confidence, adding that as president of the Calgary Stampeders, he didn’t get enough credit for helping to save the team in tough times. Speaking through his tears, the famed CFL coach said it is men like Kwong “who make our country, our province and our friendships better.”
Of all the tributes, it was family members who helped paint an even more intimate portrait of Kwong the man.
Nephew Peter Lee recalled how his uncle was a wonderful husband to his wife, Mary, of how he passed his values on to all the kids in his immediate and extended family. “Thank you for loving Auntie Mary, for being a great father,” he said, “and thank you for making wise decisions.”
For Randy Kwong, his father “taught me to rise above the adversity that we face, commit to being a better person,” while his brother Brad described his father’s modesty despite his many accomplishments. He never talked about his earlier football career, he said of his father’s notoriously modest ways. “It was truly something we found special.”
After a video tribute that showed Kwong in his many roles — athlete, businessman, lieutenant-governor, committed family man — the strains of that wonderful Sinatra song played once more.
“Here is the best part, you have a head start, if you are among the very young at heart.”