Kjeld Nicolaisen

Kjeld Nicolaisen passed away peacefully on September 6th, 2022 at the age of 74, survived by his loving wife Maureen Wheater and his 3 loving sisters Kris, Connie and Nicole and brothers-in-law Peter and Erik. Family: Tona,(Kris), Aren and Sonya: Brie, (Chuck), Alexis and Kyla: Bryce, Delaine. Maureen`s children and grandkids Shaun (Carol) Madison and Jacob, Hayden and great grandson Jenson. Kelly (Rich), Lachlan and Ayla. Aunt & Uncle & cousins on the Lauridsen side of the family in Kelowna as well as Cousins in Denmark. Longtime friends Daryl, Ken, Lorne and Rick. And many boating friends from Reed Point Marina while boating on “Friday While”.

Kjeld emigrated to Canada from Aabenraa Denmark with his parents Erna and Julius Nicolaisen and sister Kris in 1951. They lived for a while in Camrose Alberta, and then moved west to Twigg Island in Vancouver and later to Port Moody.

Kjeld was always into projects in the work shop, A somewhat more successful direction came from his deepening interest in snorkeling and diving where he began making camera housings, first out of plexiglass, but later designing and casting out of aluminum housings for Nikon cameras. They had optically ground lenses, and O-ring sealed knobs to advance film, set the focus and aperture, click, and connect to external strobe lighting. He designed and built articulating arms to control the positioning of the strobe to achieve back lighting. This was a 1970's version of Canadarm. His housing was successfully tested to 1000 feet depth by the fledgling Vancouver submarine builders who were creating the Pisces series of submarines at the same time. The success of this housing was instantaneous on the Pacific Coast leading to a new generation of underwater photographers whose works were published in leading magazines, all with Kjelds housings. It even achieved a global presence and one remains today in a Barcelona Museum.

Kjeld's life came to an end in a rapidly losing fight with pancreatic cancer discovered just 3 weeks earlier. He remarked to the doctor "I'm getting my walking papers now". Then sang to the music from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and closed his eyes for the last time. Kjelds ashes will come to rest in one of his camera housings in the deep.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish could donate to the Cancer Society or charity of their choice.