Don Starkell (December 7, 1932 – January 28, 2012) was a Canadian adventurer, diarist and author, perhaps best known for his achievements in canoeing.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3] The team won the race after a gruelling effort lasting 104 days.[4] 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.[5]