Geologist who was killed in Burkina Faso died while working job ‘he loved’:son
Posted January 30, 2019 2:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX — Family members of a Canadian mining executive who was kidnapped and killed by gunmen in western Africa said at his funeral today that his murder was senseless, but they also recognize he died while pursuing the work he was passionate about.
Officials in the Burkina Faso government have said the body of Kirk Woodman of Halifax was found with bullet wounds on Jan. 16 in Oudalan province, in the northern Sahel region.
The exploration geologist with Vancouver-based Progress Minerals Inc. had been kidnapped the night before by armed gunmen who’d entered a mining camp in Tiabongou, some distance away.
About 400 people attended the 55-year-old man’s funeral at Knox United Church in the suburb of Lower Sackville.
Matt Woodman, the geologist’s son, described an attentive father who led boy scout groups, coached minor hockey and couldn’t resist pulling the family car over on a busy highway to examine rock outcrops.
Woodman said he wished he could still call his father and ask him for advice, but he added he realizes he “died doing what he loved.”
The Canadian Press
