We have received news that Sean Kite, a former member of the Mile High Chapter choruses, has passed away. As we all mourn his passing please keep his family in your thoughts.
Below is a lovely peak into Sean’s life that was taken from the Sound of the Rockies newsletter Barbershopper of the Month that commemorated Barbershoppers who made an impact on their community.
“He grew up in Colorado but spent his summers at a family cabin west of Laramie at the Wyoming / Colorado border. He inherited incredible artistic abilities from both sides of his family tree. His mother’s father owns and operates an art studio in the Denver art district and here he learned to work in all mediums including drawing, water colors, oil, sculpting. His dad works for the Adams 12 school district as a gymnastics coach and also in the theater department designing and fabricating scenery and props.
His parents divorced when he was very young and he spent weekdays with his mom and weekends with his dad. He was an only child until he was 10, and then along came 6 sisters, for whom he began choreographing dance routines (which he participated in) from the time they began to walk. In high school he tried everything from tennis to orchestra to drama to show choir. He played viola in the All-State Orchestra. During his high school years he sported a mullet and once he permed it and dyed it orange. He looked like the comedian Carrot Top!
His appreciation of art extends into comic books, which he has been collecting since age 12. He likes both Marvel and DC, but especially DC; the Green Lantern is his favorite character and he has an entire room dedicated to comic book action figures, wall hangings, and plush toys. He has THOUSANDS of comic books, and if he ever asks you to help him move, bring a hand truck because you’ll need it to move the dozens of heavy boxes full of comic books! He has Super Hero watches, drinking glasses, belts, wallets, and an entire drawer full of Super Hero underwear!
He has an uncle who is 6 months younger than he is, and they are more like brothers. In his early 20’s he and his uncle would go line dancing 5 nights per week, and they still get out to cut a rug and teach newbies at some of the country bars in the Denver area.
He found his vocation starting with an entry level position at America’s Best and worked his way up to certified Optician and then to manager, overseeing more than 20 employees. His present employment is manager of Vision Works in Flat Irons Crossing Mall.
He married a gal he met at work and they had two children, who are now teenagers. They split up when the children were very small, but have shared custody every other day, both staying active in their children’s lives. He spent 6 years volunteering at his kids’ school working with the art teacher and ultimately forming an art club which he ran independent of any teacher involvement.
His 16-year-old daughter is now following dad’s footsteps, playing viola in high school and joined marching band as well. His 15-year-old son plays tuba and recently began teaching himself to play bass trombone through YouTube!
He was also the tie-dye guru at Summer Harmony Camp, helping the kids creatively decorate their Camp T-shirts. He also has awesome face-painting skills which his kids and nieces and nephews have enjoyed. He designs and constructs very elaborate costumes for his kids every Halloween.
Some of the more memorable creations are: a lime, a butterfly, a show girl, Marie Antoinette, a belly dancer, Dark Wing, Green Arrow, and even a garden hoe. Of course, he wore a memorable SOR pirate costume in Las Vegas.
He also enjoys hosting and decorating for themed parties, like Halloween, where he drapes the house from floor to ceiling in black plastic with spider webs and black lights. The house is decorated whole hog for a multitude of holidays, including Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Independence Day, spring and fall equinox, and of course Christmas.
Birthday parties are often themed, everything from a dinosaur party with a flowing lava birthday cake, to a Mexican fiesta party, to a Persian Scheherazade party…all fully decorated, all with authentic food. As you can imagine, he doesn’t like boring parties, and once he plotted his escape from a boring one by convincing the people he was with to pick up and hide behind potted plants and tiptoe out Scooby Doo style. A former chorus member invited him to a rehearsal, and he was immediately hooked. He loves to sing as evidenced by the joy he exudes from the moment the pitch is blown.
So what does a clever guy with all this artistic creativity do for SOR? For our pirate set he designed and created all the large props including the waves, the cloud/wind board, the Kraken (which as you can imagine required an amazing amount of detailed work), the treasure chest, and ultimately he used his sculpting talent in styrofoam to create the ship’s figurehead, the well-endowed mermaid bow ornament. He is just finished working on the multitude of toy costumes, hording piles of large cardboard boxes in the garage, awaiting their new life as colorful toy costumes. Everything behind those Whoville noses were his design…his living room became a Whoville costume shop with jackets and accessories hanging everywhere. Of course he had a huge hand in the design and adornment of our set for Welcome Christmas.”