Kelly Ray Dupont

1958 - 2020

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of Kelly Dupont on April 1, 2020.

Kelly was born the second son of Oscar and Eileen Dupont in Kamloops, BC, where he lived the majority of his life. Kelly met the love of his life, Judi Makortoff, at a CB party 43 years ago. His handle was Beer Guzzler; she was Bic Banana. They were married 5-1/2 months later on September 10, 1977. Together Kelly and Judi raised their three children: Steven, Lizsa and Mikel.

Kelly was a logger by trade at the time - as a skidder operator then as a loader operator for 21 years, and his work often took him to many isolated camps throughout the province. When driving heavy equipment became too much on his physical health, Kelly turned to "pulling wrenches" - his real passion - for a living, and worked as a mechanic out of his garage for the last 22 years.

Kelly was well-known in the racing circles, especially as the owner/operator and chief mechanic of his paddle tire Jeep, the Scream Machine. After hanging up his driver's helmet, Kelly helped Steven build and maintain his off-road race truck. His next project was working on and driving his 1980 Chevy Camaro, which he just had repainted last spring.

A highlight for Kelly was in 2011 when he and Judi travelled to Las Vegas to watch the Top Fuel drag races and see John Force drive in person, and to watch the Lucas Oil Off Road races and meet off road racing legend, Carl Renezeder.

Kelly enjoyed hanging out in the garage after a long week of work and hoisting a cold one with friends as they discussed solving the problems of the world. But most of all, Kelly enjoyed spending time with his family. Kelly loved watching his grandchildren grow. He never (or hardly ever) complained about attending their band and choir concerts, dance performances, or sporting events. Kelly was amazed at Joshua's talent in singing, playing guitar, and doing amazingly high leaps in the air during Ukrainian dance performances. He also enjoyed watching Matthew make musical instruments out of a box of odds and ends, and was so proud when he saw Matthew perform his first trumpet solo during his band concert. Kelly thought Zachary's talent for listening just once to a musical theme song from a favourite movie then playing it perfectly for him was simply amazing. He was also proud to tell anyone that would listen that Zachary was a second-degree black belt in taekwondo. Kelly was so proud of Aubrielle's loving and giving heart and her desire to raise money to buy gifts for kids at BC Children's Hospital over the past four Christmases. He even sat proudly near the front of the auditorium to watch Aubrielle perform in the Goh Ballet's production of The Nutcracker last Christmas. And Kelly was proud of little Finnley, and watched with a smile on his face as Finn first learned to crawl then walk then run - and babble at him as only he could. His greatest joy was camping with his family and taking the grandkids tubing behind the boat.

Kelly also enjoyed having Sunday evening movie date nights with Judi when they would sit in the back row of the theatre, hold hands and eat popcorn and strawberry Twizzlers. He looked forward to taking time off every summer to go camping with Judi and numerous friends and family members.

Kelly is survived by Judi, his wife of 42-1/2 years; his three children, Steven (Becky) Edgar, Lizsa (Alain) Bibeau, and Mikel (Stephy) Dupont; his five grandchildren, Joshua, Matthew, Zachary, Aubrielle, and Finnley; his mother, Eileen Beblow; his brothers, Gary (Shelly), Mark, and Wade (Charity); five nieces and nine nephews; and numerous other family, as well as friends that were family.

At Kelly's request, there will be no funeral service. A celebration of life will be held later this summer.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Kelly's honour to Thompson Rivers University Trades for a student in the Automotive Service Technician Program.