Kirk was born on October 7, 1938 in Burlington, Washington to Dick and Mary Wilson. Kirk remained in Burlington through High School, graduating from the Burlington-Edison High School Class of 1956. He forever remained proud to be a Tiger and retained deep and meaningful relationships with many of his childhood friends. Kirk excelled in sports, lettering multiple times in Football, Basketball, Baseball and Track. He received all-state awards as a Running Back, held the County record in the 440-yard dash for a number of years, and earned a Scholarship to play football for the University of Washington. Kirk was also the 1956 Student Body President at BEHS.

As a collegiate athlete at Washington, playing for legendary football coaches Darrell Royal and Jim Owens, Kirk also joined the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity (FIJI) and again garnered a number of tremendous friendships and leadership experiences that lasted the test of time.

During his senior year at the University, Kirk boarded a United flight to Chicago and met a friendly stewardess named Paula Loynd, gathered the courage to ask for her phone number, and the game was on. Kirk & Paula married in Burlington on October 22, 1960 and began a marriage that lasted almost 56 years, produced six children: Shannon Cloward, deceased; Craig (Cari) Wilson, Salt Lake City, UT; Holly (Steve) Crandall; Bluffdale, UT; Wendy (Calvin) Hunter, Alpine, UT; Kari (Eric) Wilson-Hull, Sedro-Woolley, WA; and Keith (Lynsi) Wilson, Burlington, WA; 30 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren and counting.

The "moment of truth," in Kirk's life occurred in November of 1963 when he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He felt the Savior's love, deeply believed that every person on Earth was truly his brother and sister, and committed himself to live with Christ-like integrity and charity. Because of that commitment and his gift of leadership, Kirk served in a number of positions throughout his Church life, including Bishop, Stake President, Regional Representative, and the first Mission President of the Ohio Cincinnati Mission from 1998-2001 where he and Paula served and presided over nearly 500 missionaries during that span. The opportunity to serve in these capacities and many others brought relationships, service opportunities and memories that will last forever.

Vocationally, Kirk began a career in the grocery business soon after college, managing the new Sedro-Woolley Thrifty Foods Store. By the late 1960's, Kirk became part-owner and President of Thrifty Foods, Inc and along with a fantastic group of fellow leaders and employees, helped grow the company into one of the largest privately-held, revenue-producing companies in the State of Washington over the next 30 years. Kirk was well-respected in the community, remained loyal and kind to his employees, and went the extra mile to serve Thrifty customers wherever he could. Kirk was a generous donor with both time and money to many charities, institutions of higher learning, service organizations and local infrastructure. He was also a founder of Burlington Rotary and spent many years on the Board of Puget Power as well as the Board of Associated Grocers.

Kirk would want to thank all of you for the contributions you made to his life and most recently, the wonderful and loving care provided by the kind people at Ashley Gardens Memory Care Center in Mt. Vernon.

Funeral services for Kirk will be held on Saturday, July 16th at 11 am at the Mt. Vernon LDS Stake Center on 1700 E. Hazel Street in Mt. Vernon, WA. A viewing before the Funeral will begin in the same building at 9 am. Following the Funeral services, a graveside service will be held at the Burlington Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at: give.lds.org/humanitarian or The Skagit Community Foundation (skagitcf.org).

Please share your thoughts and sign the online guest register at www.hawthornefh.com

Arrangements are under care of Hawthorne Funeral Home, Mount Vernon, WA