Monsignor Fee Otterson who died in Edmonton on 9 September was a playful soul who once showed up to a family barbecue in a horrendous wig and once officiated an Easter service in bunny ears.
He would lead drama classes in gibberish to challenge the communication skills of students. He walked school hallways wearing the red-and-white striped hat of Cat in the Hat or an old-fashioned judge’s white wig. And he was known to friends as “the Needle,” launching off-the-wall one-liners at parties with a conspiratorial wink, then leaning back to watch the ensuing fireworks.
Otterson spent 65 years in the priesthood and 34 years as a teacher of drama, religion, Latin and English at St. Joseph, St. Mary and Austin O’Brien high schools in Edmonton. He was surrounded by close friends and family, including nephew D’Arcy Ross, with whom he shared a running joke: the same barber for their very thin, receding hairlines.