This page is dedicated to remembering some of the Northwest Territories residents who passed away in 2025, through the eyes of those who knew them well.
On this page, we have collected obituaries we published over the course of the past 12 months.
The staff of Cabin Radio extend our thoughts and condolences to all families in the territory who lost a loved one this year.
Names and details on this page are shown as they were provided to Cabin Radio by those who spoke in tribute to people who had passed.
If you’d like to know more about how our obituaries are published, we have included information at the foot of the page.
Rosie Betthale-Reid
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on January 18, 2025.
Rosie Betthale-Reid was someone you could count on in some of the most challenging times, having played an important role in translating crucial information during the Covid-19 pandemic and during wildfire seasons.
The Fort Liard resident passed away suddenly at the age of 70.
Born on Maxhamish Lake (also known as Sandy Lake) in northern British Columbia, Rosie worked as an alcohol and drug counsellor in Hay River before she and her husband, Kyle, retired to Fort Liard.
Rosie loved being on the land and found peace in the bush.
She was known as an incredible fisher, according to her son, Steven Steeves.
“She could always catch dinner. Didn’t matter if it was a little pond or a river or anything, she always caught a fish,” said Steeves.
He described her as a wonderful mother and community member.
“Any time you’d be sad or anything, she would just know, and she would come and talk to you, and hold on to you, and give you a hug and say things will be better and get you out of the rut,” said Steeves. (Read our obituary in full.)
Ian Legaree
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on January 23, 2025.
Ian Legaree, who passed away aged 65, became a force for northern giving and youth sports as one of the NWT’s most prolific organizers.
Ian was a pillar of the Yellowknife Community Foundation for decades, a dedicated swimming coach, the man sent to help communities in need, and a central figure in the Arctic Winter Games movement.
Despite an extraordinarily hectic schedule, his children described him as a sounding board and source of inspiration who was always present.
Underpinning everything Ian did was organization.
“He was one of the most organized people I’ve run into,” said Charles Dent, the former MLA and now chair of the NWT Human Rights Commission, who worked closely with Ian to stage the community foundation’s annual gala.
When family members began the solemn process of trying to handle Ian’s death, they discovered Ian was – even now – a couple of steps ahead.
“We went onto his computer and found he had prepared a whole list of all the things I had to do in case he passed away,” said his wife of 44 years, Shawna Lampi-Legaree, through laughter. “He is taking care of me, even after he’s gone.” (Read our obituary in full.)
Lance Beaulieu
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on January 24, 2025.
Kari VanGeffen fell in love with Lance Beaulieu when she laid eyes on him in Grade 8 at Yellowknife’s St Patrick’s High School.
The two had been born just three days apart in 1983. It was on Kari’s 14th birthday, in 1997, that they met for the first time.
“I just remember looking at him and seeing this beauty and this light that drew me in,” Kari recalled. “I pursued him. I kept calling him and saying, ‘Oh, hey, do you want to hang out?’”
Lance passed away on January 6. He was 41 years old.
To Kari, Lance had been a constant presence by her side for her entire adult life and beyond.
“We lived together. We went through high school together. Everything we did was together,” Kari said.
In an obituary, the family described Lance as the proud father of Kaitlyn, 20, and Tanner, 18. (Read our obituary in full.)
Ted Blondin
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on April 10, 2025.
Tim O’Loan says he always wanted to be like his uncle Arthur Ted Blondin when he grew up.
“I became a negotiator because of my uncle Ted, so I was a negotiator with the Government of the Northwest Territories,” he said. “He had a huge impact on me. He was like a father to me.”
Blondin, a respected Elder from the NWT’s Tłı̨chǫ region, passed away at Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife surrounded by friends and family. He was 72.
“His impact on the North professionally was immense. You’re not going to find a leader without a story about Ted,” O’Loan said.
Tłı̨chǫ Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty said Blondin was an inspirational leader who will be remembered for his guidance and work to further the rights of Indigenous people in the North.
“Ted led a life of years and years of service and advocacy for Tłı̨chǫ people and people of the North, and for the protection of Tłı̨chǫ land,” he said. (Read our obituary in full.)
Knud Rasmussen
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on May 6, 2025.
“Knud Rasmussen was the kind of guy Yellowknife needed. That’s because he was good at blowing it up.”
So began a 2013 profile of Knud Rasmussen, who has passed away at the age of 84.
Knud’s blasting literally shaped downtown Yellowknife, while his work in mining and prospecting earned him a place as a chamber of mines honorary member.
A man obsessed with his job, some details of Knud’s life remained such a mystery that even now, his family struggles to fully articulate how he came to leave Denmark for Yellowknife in 1959.
“The work was his life, and it is with me. I guess that’s why we got together,” said Dave Nickerson, another mining hall-of-famer who worked extensively with Knud. “We got along well together because we both thought the same way.”
“He struck me as somebody that was out there making it happen,” said Soren Thomassen, a fellow Dane drawn to the North, “instead of wondering what was going to happen.”
Knud was, in many respects, the classic image of a 1960s and 1970s Yellowknifer. His was a name known by virtually every resident, he took his meals at the Gold Range with the movers and shakers of the day, and he was at the heart of the industry that powered Yellowknife at the time.
More than anything, he prided himself on his blasting safety record. But he had some other talents up his sleeve – or packed onto his back.
“Everybody remembers that time,” said Nickerson of a contest at Yellowknife’s annual Caribou Carnival in which people would competitively load flour sacks onto their backs. The Rasmussen family says Knud’s record, set in 1969, was 1,000 lb carried for 50 feet. (Read our obituary in full.)
Larry Galt
Excerpted from an Edge YK article originally published in 2015 and republished by Cabin Radio on May 25, 2025.
Among the books, tools and knick-knacks of Larry Galt’s plywood shack out along Highway 3 is a photograph of young Larry, bushy faced and bleary eyed, flopped over the wheel of a 1960s Pontiac.
What the tightly cropped photo doesn’t show is the surrounding mayhem of a legendary Woodyard party, nor the fact that Larry and his car are rolling towards a sizable bonfire.
“If my car’s going into the fire I’m going to be behind the wheel,” says Larry, holding the photo with childish grin on his face. The old bushman, prospector and recovering alcoholic clearly made it out of the car that night. But as with many of his more notorious party stories, he’s fairly slim on details.
“All those people are still around, so I can’t talk with that thing on,” he says pointing to the recorder. “But suffice it to say that there was RCMP, bylaw and the fire department involved and they couldn’t do anything so they just let us go.”
Larry came North from Red Deer, Alta., in 1971, 19 years old and fleeing a girlfriend: “She was getting a little possessive so I got out of Dodge. She even had the little Afghans named.”
His first job at Con Mine lasted only a few months before he got bored and took off into the bush, firefighting, prospecting and roaming Great Slave Lake with buddies for months at a time.
His life took a major turn about a decade ago, when he finally quit drinking with help of Yellowknife’s Alcoholics Anonymous. “I was unable to do my job. You’re half-cut all the time or piss-drunk for months and months. The time slips away when you’re in addiction, and I finally came to terms with that. Luckily I had a place to stay, and Carl and Mary Ann [Williams, on whose property he stays], they just accept me the way I am.” (Read the full article.)
Darrel Mack
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on June 20, 2025.
When Darrel Mack passed away, he was Canada’s number one boxer in at least three weight divisions.
Granted, those divisions were in the video game Fight Night Champion. To Darrel’s friends and his son, that’s a minor detail.
“That’s such a poetic way to go for him,” said his son, Brandon.
Darrel was a fighter. People fight cancer all the time – it’s the default way to describe the process of trying to survive something terrible – but Darrel really fought his, because that was the language he understood.
As a child, he stood up for others. He met the future love of his life in taekwondo class at high school. He spent weekend after weekend watching boxing and UFC with his son. The Fight Night Champion community will never see another like him.
“He approached cancer like a fight, how you would a boxing match, and he took it one step at a time. He just kept battling it for as long as he could,” said Nathan McPherson, a cousin who considered Darrel more of an older brother.
Darrel, a member of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation, was diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer in early 2021. His partner, Leela Gilday, remembers him being told he had about a two-percent chance of living for another two years.
He passed away on March 30 this year, more than four years after that diagnosis. (Read our obituary in full.)
Joshua Patenaude
Excerpted from a Cabin Radio report published on July 18, 2025.
Great Slave Helicopters says Joshua Patenaude was the pilot killed in an accident that took place during tree planting operations near Behchokǫ̀.
The company issued a statement expressing “deep sadness” about his passing.
He was the sole occupant of the helicopter involved in the incident, which is being investigated by the Transportation Safety Bureau of Canada.
“Josh was magic as one may say, a devoted son, partner, brother and colleague,” the company stated.
“He was a best friend to many and a kind-hearted soul who gave back to the community through volunteer work in his free time. His warmth, generosity, and spirit touched everyone who knew him, and he will be deeply missed.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to Josh’s family, friends, and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time.”
The company thanked the Tłı̨chǫ Government, community of Behchokǫ̀, tree-planters and first responders “for their bravery, support, ceremonies, and prayers.” (Read the full article.)
Sam Gargan
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on September 12, 2025.
Sam Gargan, one of the longest-serving MLAs in the NWT, passed away at the age of 77 after suffering a short illness.
Gargan served at many levels of government throughout his career, including as an MLA for the Dehcho, chief of the Deh Gáh Got’îê First Nation, grand chief of the Dehcho First Nations, and mayor of Fort Providence.
He was first elected as an MLA in 1983 and was chosen as the legislature’s speaker in 1995. In all, he was an MLA for 16 years.
He is remembered as a musical, meticulous man with a cheeky sense of humour, who knew how to rouse a crowd.
Tom Beaulieu worked with Gargan while he was an MLA, when Beaulieu was the director of Housing NWT’s South Slave region.
Instead of going through the housing minister, Beaulieu said, Gargan would find ways to meet with the people actually implementing government policies.
“I got to see him at least once a month with his [note]book and sit down and go through the issues he had with housing,” said Beaulieu.
“He continued more of that style of a face-to-face approach to bringing the issue directly to people that could react to it immediately.” (Read our obituary in full.)
Merlyn Williams
Excerpted from Cabin Radio’s obituary published on October 31, 2025.
In the early 1960s, in the small Welsh town of Morriston, Joyce Lewis was getting ready for a date with a rugby player named Peter. The doorbell rang – and there were two men outside.
One was Peter, as billed. The other? Merlyn Williams.
“Merlyn told me: ‘If I toss a coin, you might decide to go out with me instead of him.’ I told him it doesn’t work that way,” Joyce recalled. She and Peter went out for the night.
After the date had ended, coming back past the church and down the road to her home, Joyce paused.
“Who was sitting on the church steps about four hours later? There was Merlyn, waiting for me to come back,” she said.
Merlyn and Joyce were married in 1965. They moved to Yellowknife in 1967, Merlyn opened the Williams Electronics business, and the couple became central figures in the city’s theatrical heart and community spirit for decades.
Merlyn passed away on September 7 at the age of 84. He is remembered as a storyteller without compare, a comedian, a loving husband and father, and a proud Welshman who nevertheless discovered Yellowknife and the North meant just as much to him – perhaps even more. (Read our obituary in full.)
Obituaries on Cabin Radio’s website
Obituaries for key NWT public figures are a feature of Cabin Radio’s news coverage and written once a person’s death has been confirmed by our reporters.
Beyond that, we try to write obituaries throughout each year that reflect the full range of lives lived in the territory, remembering people who made significant contributions to the NWT or a specific community or cause.
Sometimes, our obituaries are written in consultation with family members who approach Cabin Radio for help documenting the life of a loved one.
While the small size of our newsroom means our capacity is limited, we invite anyone grieving the loss of an NWT resident to contact us if they’d like our help in preparing an account of the person’s life. If we can assist, we will do so at no cost.
