Kent Turner (Photos courtesy Ken Stange)
Whidbey is paying tribute to one of its best today, after Kent Turner passed away Wednesday at age 39.
A 2005 graduate of Coupeville High School who played tennis for the Wolves, he was the son of Deborah Turner, who served on the school board between 2001-2008.
One of his friends, former longtime CHS tennis coach and teacher Ken Stange, offered up the following tribute, which he is letting us republish:
Kent was a major fixture in so many communities on our island.
He drummed for four bands that I know of. He was well known and respected in his work.
He was a very active member of his church. He helped people with sobriety.
He grew up here on the island. He was helpful and kind and funny. He was a friend to many, me included.
I was fortunate enough to have known Kent from two of those large communities he was a part of.
In 2004, I began teaching in Coupeville. It was Kent’s senior year.
I didn’t have him in class and even though he was a tennis player, I didn’t start coaching until my second year there, just after he’d graduated.
Still, we’d managed to strike up a pretty cool relationship because despite not being in my class, he spent quite a bit of time in my classroom.
We had a shared love of tennis and music, plus he was just a really nice kid.
We had a stupid joke about how he was Kent and I was Ken, from Kent.
Ten years later I moved to the South end and there he was again!
I’d see him around often and we’d always chat about tennis and sports; about how awesome the band Rush was.
He was just one of those guys who left you feeling better than you’d felt before you ran into him. Those are some of the best people!
A few years later, he was drumming on the Bailey’s stage.
No longer the kid at Coupeville High School, I saw him for the grown adult man he was, and a damn fine example of one at that.
I always loved chatting with him. He was beloved and well-respected member of the Whidbey music scene, and I was lucky, happy, and proud to be associated with him.
Tripp’n Gypsy’s … Haunting Autumn … Ant Aesthetic … Ike and The Old Man. Those were his bands, all different sounds and all with Kent holding down the fort.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to sit in with Tripp’n Gypsy’s a little bit. They were the first ones to do it.
I got to do two different songs by The Tragically Hip with them. It involved actually going to their band practices and working with them.
I remember the first time well.
The song was called “Scared,” and to be honest, so was I.
I’d never sang outside of being alone in a car and while I was a huge Tragically Hip fan, Scared was not exactly a song that would be easy because it was a soft one.
No screaming, and it had some tricky word combos.
I was nervous.
I showed up to their practice space, and they all made me feel at home. We began practicing the song.
We’d start … we’d stop … we rinsed and repeated several times.
I felt like an interloper as I listened to band members discuss things and hash out details about making the song flow better. I felt that I was definitely in over my head.
Then Kent shouted above everyone and asked what I thought.
For some reason, I didn’t feel like an interloper anymore, didn’t feel in over my head.
I added my thoughts.
Kent said that I’d probably listened to that song many more times than everyone. He even took some advice from me about his part.
We all got back to it. It sounded better and better.
The next weekend, they shepherded me through my first ever public singing performance. For me, it was all Kent.
He was the catalyst with his building of my confidence and enabling me to get up there and do it with some form of conviction.
The next time I performed with Tripp’n Gypsy’s, I had input into the song.
We chose “Fiddler’s Green,” again by The Hip.
It’s a sad song about a boy gone too soon from the world. I loved that one, and I hope that William Leffler and the gang will want to run it back with “Fiddler’s Green,” for Kent.
Hopefully, we can have some sort Kent Fest, so the community of musicians and music lovers, along with anyone else from all his other communities, can celebrate Kent, his life, and all the ways he helped us live better.
Kent, I love you and miss you.
I also know you’d say this post is lame and that having a party in your honor would be even lamer.
Peace, my friend.
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