To be missed by many

If you've been to the Kununurra Agricultural show in recent years, then you've more than likely seen Reg Bolton in action.

And...he was back there on Friday teaching young people circus skills and putting together a show.

He went back to his hotel in the evening and was discovered dead in his bed on Saturday morning.

He appeared to have died peacefully in his sleep.

A fit and diet conscious person, his passing was a real shock.

Reg was 61.

He has been a mentor to thousands of children and youths across the world.

By teaching circus skills, he has taught self reliance, self esteem and set many people 'back on the rails' who might have otherwise gone astray.

A teacher by profession, he established the idea of Suitcase Circus in 1975.

In a little cottage at Long Green, West Lothian, Scotland, Suitcase Circus was born.

It started as an informal association of support for the work of Reg Bolton, introducing circus skills into the streets and housing estates of Edinburgh.

Reg spent a short time studying at L'Ecole Nationale du Cirque, Annie Fratellini's Circus School in Paris.

In 1981, Suitcase Circus organised the first ever Community Circus Festival, in Manchester.

In 1985, the Bolton family moved to Perth WA and a new phase began.

Suitcase Circus began to work with sports clubs, corporations, shopping centres, Aboriginal and other cultural groups, with special interest medical groups, at rural agricultural shows and at pre-schools and universities.

Reg embraced opportunities to work on 'circus in education'.

His thesis on the subject won him a PhD last year.

But, between the Edinburgh streets and the PhD there is a list of achievements that would easily fill a book or two.

He has won numerous awards for his work; published 12 books or papers; made numerous television appearances and videos; been involved in numerous community arts projects and has taken part in a massive number of festivals and theatre productions all over the world.

It is impossible to do justice to his accomplishments in the confines of a newspaper.

Suffice to say that he will be deeply missed in Kununurra and all over the world by the thousands he taught a few skills that might have appeared to be circus skills, but were in fact life skills.