Dirk Eugene Topham

Dirk Eugene Topham, of Baraboo, WI, and Chicago, IL, passed away unexpectedly on May 18 due to complications from leukemia and other health issues.

In his lifetime, Dirk worked many jobs, but his most significant ones were as a photographer, a restaurant manager, and an insurance agent, the latter a job he did in the agency of his father, Don Topham, also of Baraboo.

Dirk got his first photography job while still a teenager, taking photos for the Baraboo News Republic. While he was assured he'd have a position as long as he wanted it, a change of management at the paper meant that he soon lost it. That did not deter him, however.

Always seen with a camera in hand, Dirk prided himself on his photography, both professionally and personally. Dirk loved capturing candid photos of everything and everyone he came across. From pictures of the Ringling Brothers circus to family and friends to nature and his feline companions, Dirk saw the beauty in everything, and his photography shows that perpetual fascination.

After a brief and tempestuous marriage in the 90s and a longer, more tender relationship in the early aughts with a woman whose death nearly destroyed him, Dirk's life changed when he met Karen, his wife-to-be. The couple met online despite the fact that each of them had set match parameters that should never have shown them each other's profiles. Still, once they had met, they talked or texted with each other every day, and soon Dirk was driving back and forth between their homes every week.

It didn't take a very long time before Dirk moved in with her in Vernon Hills, IL, in a townhouse with Karen's three children and three cats. They were married at North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, IL on May 26, 2007. The following year, with Karen's support, he opened a photo studio, Dirk Topham Photography, back in Baraboo, and the back and forth drives resumed. Unfortunately, the studio fell victim to the recession of 2008, and Dirk returned permanently to Illinois, though in his heart he always considered "the Boo" his home.

Suddenly the stepfather of three kids, Dirk strove to forge good relationships with them all and with an ever-changing menagerie of cats. In 2017, Karen's post-retirement career as a theatre critic brought them to Chicago. Dirk became her constant "plus one" at plays and musicals throughout the area, and while he may not have enjoyed every single one-he was very disappointed in Hamilton-he loved seeing Karen's expressions as she watched and reading her reviews. He also loved politics and spent many hours on liberal websites. His major unrequited love was with model trains; he always wanted to build a large model town where he could imagine the lives of the inhabitants as he sent the trains rolling by, but could never find a space where the cats could not terrorize them.

Having been diagnosed with diabetes years earlier, it did not surprise him when the disease took one of his legs, but he did not let that deter him from doing what he loved. While it was a bit more difficult to navigate, Dirk did his best to keep helping around the house, including cooking and taking care of the cats. When he went out, there was almost always a camera around his neck. Dirk was the type of person who would ask to stop just to take the perfect shot (even if no one else could see what he saw). And he was always right.

Dirk was preceded in death by his mother, Ruth Topham. He is succeeded by his father Don Topham, his brother Brett Topham, and his sister-in-law Susan Topham, as well as his wife Karen Topham, his step-children North Homewood, Julianne Jones, and Melanie Kopriva, as well as his two step-grandchildren, Soren and Calloway Jones.

Karen requests that you not send flowers.

North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, IL will hold a celebration of his life on August 2.