Soldier, Shriner, clown, salesman: The life of Craig McPhee

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When retired RCAF Warrant Officer Craig McPhee’s mortal remains were paraded into the Beechwood Cemetery’s Sacred Space, they were accompanied by an honour guard of four clowns.

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The floppy feet, baggy pants, bright wigs and bulb noses were not out of place since McPhee had forged an unusual path in life.

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He was a soldier, Shriner, clown and office supplies salesman — and he was good at all of those things, and many more. McPhee organized Christmas gift drives for needy children, performed as Santa Claus at countless Christmas parties, and clowned in Ottawa’s annual Santa Claus parade until he collapsed one year from hypothermia.

McPhee also worked tirelessly in his retirement to launch a registered charity, Wreaths Across Canada, that decorates Canadian military graves with wreaths each December.

McPhee died Oct. 20 from the complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.

“He was the most enthusiastic person I ever met,” said his friend, Gerry Wharton, 87, a retired Canadian Forces major. “He threw himself into everything with great vigour and dedication. He would volunteer at the drop of a hat.”

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Shirley Lambert-McPhee said her husband loved people. “He was very outgoing, and he loved to entertain,” she said.

Craig Alexander McPhee was born in Montreal on Aug. 2, 1938, and grew up in Vancouver. He contracted polio as a child, and while in hospital with the disease, looked out to the window one day to see an alley of clowns driving tiny motorcycles in funny hats.

He later told his wife that was the moment he resolved to be a clown.

McPhee had a difficult childhood and left home at 16 with only a Grade 9 education. He worked in a bowling alley and a soft drink factory before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force at 18, mostly because he coveted the pension.

He did his basic training in St. Jean, Quebec and was posted as a clerk to Air Transport Command Headquarters in Lachine. McPhee became an intelligence officer and worked at 412 Transport Squadron in Ottawa, the 41^st NORAD Division in North Bay, and as an instructor at Camp Borden’s Canadian Forces School of Intelligence and Security.

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McPhee spent much of his 26-year military career overseas, serving with 4 Fighter Wing in Baden-Söllingen, Germany, at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium, and NATO’s Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force in Ramstein, Germany.

It was while in Germany that McPhee joined Shriners International, a fraternity founded in 1872 by a group of New York City Freemasons dedicated to fun, fellowship, compassion and generosity. Initially known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the group borrowed heavily from the Arab world and adopted the red fez as one of its defining symbols.

McPhee embraced the Shriners’ emphasis on volunteerism and its proud history of clowning. After enrolling in clown school in 1975, he spent countless hours refining his clown uniforms, his make-up and his balloon animals, and once came third in the Shriner World Competition of Clowning.

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“Craig was born to be a clown,” said Gerry Wharton. “He had the face of a clown — that’s not an insult — and he never had children of his own, but he loved children and he loved acting so it all fell into place for him as a clown.”

In 1982, McPhee retired from the military and began work at the office supply firm, Grand & Toy. He moved into sales and, by 1989, was the firm’s top national salesman.

He retired for a second time in 2004, the same year he married an old friend, Shirley Lambert, who had been widowed two years earlier. McPhee became a devoted stepfather and grandparent.

“He was always cheerful,” said Rev. Lee Lambert, his stepson. “The thing about Craig was, he was always the same: He was always optimistic, generous, kind.”

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It was during a December 2007 trip with his wife that McPhee visited Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington D.C. He was awed by the fact that each military headstone in the sprawling cemetery was decorated with a Christmas wreath.

After discovering the initiative was organized by a private charity, Wreaths Across America, McPhee vowed to launch a similar program in Canada. For the next four years, he enlisted friends and former colleagues in an effort to build Wreaths Across Canada: The goal of the organization was to place a fresh balsam wreath on the grave of every Canadian soldier buried in Beechwood Cemetery.

“His enthusiasm drove the whole thing,” said Wharton.

In 2011, the group held its first service at Beechwood where 2,800 wreaths were placed on military graves. (Wreaths Across Canada ran into financial difficulties in 2019, but has since relaunched.)

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McPhee also threw himself into smaller projects. He obtained his master’s clown award from the Northeast Clown Institute, taught clowning, and spent more than 7,000 hours “in make-up” at children’s hospitals, Shriners’ circuses and other fundraising events.

Every year, he hosted large Christmas parties and a Canada Day party in the backyard of his Stittsville home. For years, he also raised money to buy gifts for children staying with their mothers in local women’s shelters, and distributed the presents at a Christmas party where he dressed as Santa.

He owned three Santa suits.

McPhee first began to exhibit signs of Alzheimer’s about five years ago. It eventually forced him to give up his volunteer activities, and slowly robbed him of his enthusiasm.

At McPhee’s funeral last month, his military uniform, red clown shoes and tasseled fez hat were among the personal items on display at the front of the room. When the ceremony ended, one of the attending clowns released four helium balloons into the sky.

“It was a poignant moment watching these balloons rise heavenward,” said Wharton.