Kirk Sinclair

It’s easy for most of us to tick off a list of achievements in our lives: graduations and grade point averages, degrees and distinguished honors, promotions and performances, wins and wonders. But it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint the high point of one’s life, particularly for a huge spirit like Kirk Sinclair who drank life in gulps not sips. 

Maybe it was the time Kirk proposed to Sharon on top of Long’s Peak in Colorado, the highest mountain you can climb without gear. But then he always said the air was thin up there, so he didn’t know what he was doing. So maybe it was the moment when, after seven long years of building his bucket list boat, sanding and buffing the deck as smooth as a baby’s bottom, that he launched “The Rose of Sharon” at Buggs Island, Virginia, the start of his sailing journey with the boys from the TSCA Old Bay Club. A club of like-minded men that found common ground in sailing wooden boats. That’s quite a journey for a guy from the middle of the country whose closest ocean was Lake Michigan. 

But then, you can take the boy out of Riverdale, Illinois, but you can’t take the Southside out of the man. Even after whisking his new bride out of her comfort zone from the Midwest to live in the South and creating the home of their dreams in Bedford County, Kirk Sinclair remained the solid, steady, wisecracking life sailor he was, until his death on Friday, Sept. 7, at the home he shared with his first mate Sharon. His strong will for life never dimmed. It was his 65-year-old heart — that big, beautiful, fierce force of friendship, loyalty and laughs — that did him in after years of defying medical science.

Gene and Betty Sinclair welcomed baby boy Kirk Lee Sinclair to the world on July 12, the warmest month of 1959. Kirk became an engineer by trade, but that didn’t define him. He was really a builder, whose passions were family, friends and his hobbies. As an Eagle Scout, he learned many of life’s skills that molded him into the beloved man that touched so many hearts. The Southside friendships he forged remain his best buddies to this day and many new friendships were added during his life in Virginia. The special bond he had with his brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews were a bonus. 

As an entrepreneur, he built a career, first with Grayson Electronics — the job that brought him to Central Virginia — then built his own successful pump and motor business, American Electric Motors in Lynchburg. He invested not only in his business, but in the community by sponsoring local youth sports teams and the Boy Scouts of America. Like all the best builders, Kirk’s projects never ended. He had just completed designing and was about to embark on building the family cabin at Rock Dam, Wisconsin. 

Perhaps his highest point was also the longest lasting: the beautiful life he constructed with Sharon for almost 32 years in their comfy castle filled with treasures of their travels and memories of a life lived well and truly. Magical meals he conjured like the kitchen wizard he was. Cocktails on the deck, where irascible outbursts about politics and other sporting topics were heartily debated with good bourbon and grins. There was always a place at their hearth for friends and family. 

Kirk leaves in his wake brother Craig Sinclair and his wife Beth, sister Kristy and husband Terry Jozwik, five sisters-in-law: Renee and Sam Pobjecky, Jean and Ron Daggett, Kimberly and Jim Ward, Kelli Pittz, and Kathleen and Larry Welborn. He also leaves a crew of nieces and nephews he adored: Joseph Sinclair, Jeremiah Sinclair, Jessica Jozwik, Rachel Jozwik, Corey Pierce, Kyle Daggett, Brett Daggett, Karly O’Leary, Paige Sopcic, Christopher Berlinghof, Jessica Berlinghof, Kelsey Berlinghof, and Claire Welborn. 

Because of his love of the water, Kirk’s ashes will be interred in the ocean, on a river, and at Rock Dam. Details for a Hail and Farewell when Kirk’s circles of friends will gather and tell tales will be determined at a later date. Those who wish to honor Kirk with a memorial contribution may donate to TSCA Old Bay Club or your local Boy Scouts of America.

Kirk leaves us with his favorite quote and a call out to all wooden boat lovers: “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” The Kenneth Grahame‘s classic The Wind in the Willows