Don Starkell

Who was Don Starkell?

Don Starkell was a Canadian adventurer, diarist and author, perhaps best known for his achievements in canoeing.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he had a difficult childhood including an abusive father, four and a half years in an orphanage, and later with a foster family in North Kildonan. He took up canoeing in his teens and at age 17 was named Most Outstanding Novice at the Kildonan Canoe Club. He competed professionally as a canoeist, winning 10 out of 12 races that he entered. In 1967, he was a member of the Manitoba team that competed in the Expo 67 Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant race from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta to Montreal, Quebec. The team won the race after a gruelling effort lasting 104 days. Starkell suffered serious burns to his legs, as well as smoke inhalation when a fire broke out in his house in Winnipeg in March, 2010.