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It was a story he told several times, difficult though it must have been to recollect.

When Norman Kwong was a little boy growing up in Calgary in the 1930s, he knew of a park at the top of the Centre Street hill.

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Kwong longed to join the other kids who splashed in its wading pool, but he simply wasn’t allowed. It wasn’t about money or his swimming ability.

It was the colour of his skin.

“I always wanted to go wading in the pool there, but I wasn’t allowed because it was just for white people,” he once told the Herald.

“There was no sign or anything; it’s just the way things were.”

The remarkable part of Kwong’s story wasn’t that such cruel restrictions existed in Alberta.

It was his response to it.

Kwong didn’t accept limits. He overcame challenges. And, with the support of his family, he became one of the province’s most revered and cherished citizens.

SunMedia

When it was announced Saturday that Kwong — an esteemed athlete, businessman and lieutenant-governor — had passed away at 86, condolences poured in from across the province and the country.