RESILIENT SKIP LEAVES LASTING LEGACY
Avid curler was active on pebbled ice until late January, playing on replaced knees
As a decisive curling skip, Steve Kot left little to chance.
One morning on the downtown Queensway, though, luck was his saving grace, giving Kathleen and Steve Kot the gift of another 19 years together.
That precious time ended last Thursday, March 29, when Kot died at home of pneumonia, surrounded by family with love in their hearts and a prayer hymn in their voices. He was 93.
The Kots made local headlines on Feb. 3, 1999, when their Ford Taurus wagon was struck by a pickup truck, flew off the Queensway near Bronson Avenue and plunged about 10 metres onto Catherine Street, flipping over twice before landing upright. A movie crash shot. Kot was
74 at the time, his bride, 71. Their incredible fortune was that the car struck a storage building, interrupting their fall.
On the scene, news photographer Errol McGihon captured an amazing image of Kathleen’s face, framed by a broken windshield. Now 90, Kathleen says she wore the “purple seatbelt imprint” for a long time following the crash. Her husband suffered a broken collarbone, but was released from hospital.
Their son, Jim, was at work when a colleague said he’d just witnessed a car flying off the Queensway. Jim said, “I guess those people are gone?”
“Oh definitely.”
A minute later, Jim’s phone rang. It was the police, telling him his parents had been taken to hospital following a car crash. THE crash. The OPP officer who interviewed the Kots about it was none other than Lyndon Slewidge, known for his anthem renditions at Senators hockey games. Slewidge said at the time he had never known a more spectacular highway crash. Today, the newsprint coverage is part of the Kot memorabilia, along with nearly 70 years of curling hardware and pins from a life on the pebbled ice.
Steve Kot was born on his family farm in McTaggart, Sask., in 1924. He missed Grade 11 to help his dad work the fields, but that didn’t stop him from earning a Governor General’s Academic Award as the top student in Grade 12. With a university education, he came to Ottawa in 1948, age 23, to work as a patent examiner, and joined the Glebe Curling Club at Lansdowne Park with some colleagues.
Kot spent 41 years at the patent office, including as a judge on the patent appeal board.
In his personal life, like all great love stories, this one began ... in an elevator?
Seems Kot had seen a vision on the lift one day and asked around. Kathleen Bull, the woman who caught his eye, was working for a Crown corporation in the same government building, and had a friend in Kot’s office. They were introduced. The first date was memorable.
“He took me to the Exhibition, and I saw all the lovely farm implements,” says Kathleen, laughing.
They married, had six children — Mary Ellen, Kathleen, Patricia, Theresa, Jim and Stephen — most of them still clustered today not far from the Kot abode on Cowley Avenue in Champlain Park, a stone’s throw from the Ottawa River.
The Kots have been on Cowley for 62 years, after living three years at the Bull home on Spencer, a few blocks to the south.
Kathleen has lived her entire 90-year life within a radius of about one kilometre in Ottawa’s west end.
Kot was beyond capable, whether directing a curling team or under the hood of a car. He repaired autos and did plumbing, electrical and carpentry for all his children, as needed. He would return each fall to Saskatchewan to help his parents with the harvest. Hardwired for hard work, at 92, he was still mowing his lawn in 30-degree heat.
In 1969, the Glebe Curling Club closed and Kot moved to the Navy club near Dow’s Lake.
Len Fluet was Kot’s partner on the back end from 1962 until a few weeks before his death. Kot was still curling on two replaced knees in late January, age 93.
About five years ago, Kot asked Fluet to throw skip rock while he shifted to third. Over the years, they went through numerous front-end players.
Kot’s first city of Ottawa Bonspiel is believed to be 1955. Fluet joined up several years later. They had their moments, representing Ontario in two senior Canadian curling championships, finishing second with a 9-2 record in 1985.
“He was very competitive and read the ice well, right up to the end,” Fluet says. “His strategy was always solid. He didn’t try anything real fancy.” Or, what Kot would call “circus shots.”
A little unsteady on the ice in later years, he fell and hurt his right arm.
Without missing a beat, he threw stones with the left, making 70 per cent of his shots.
On Monday, Fluet played a game at the Navy Club in Kot’s honour. There was a moment of silence. He quietly cleaned out his friend’s locker and brought his broom and other effects to the family.
Kot played all over the region, Kingston, Thousand Islands
... always noting the closest Catholic Church for mass on Sunday or Saturday evening.
Kathleen’s mother used to say she could tell by the sound of Steve’s feet on the steps if he’d won that day.
A humble, quiet man, he would have scoffed at any fuss over his passing. The family will remember his devotion and spirit of adventure, never more apparent than during an epic tent-trailer car trip to California in 1968: 8,000 miles in six weeks, six young kids, with frequent stops for ice cream.
During the Depression in the Prairies, Steve’s mother once made ice cream using hailstones. He thought it was the best thing going.
He will be missed, all over town, but especially on Cowley Avenue.
“I wish it was all a dream,” Kathleen said, as all around grew silent.
Along with his beloved wife of 65 years, Kot leaves six children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandkids. Visitation is 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday at Hulse, Playfair & McGarry, 150 Woodroffe Ave. Funeral mass is 11 a.m. Friday 11 at St. George’s Parish, 415 Piccadilly Ave., where the Kots were married.