Medicine Hat Tennis Club starts season without key member

“Every time you walk in here, it feels like Ken is still present,” Heller said.

“He built a beautiful facility for all of Medicine Hat to enjoy,” he added.

“If it wasn’t for Ken, he would give some credit to Brian Patterson, who’s a good friend of his, but those two got it started here in this location.”

Heller said that Patterson had left Medicine Hat and Clement ran the club by himself for about 30 years.

“A lot of hours gone into it, and, you know, I believe he loved what he did, and it shows. He did step down as manager in December 2024, and he left it in such a way that nobody can fail with it,” said Heller.

“If you know Ken, he has all his T’s crossed and I’s dotted, and he left us a template that is guaranteed to have success. So he left everything foolproof.”

Heller said the Tennis Club will without a question look at a way to memorialize Clement.

“We’re not going to rush that. It’s very easy to say, somebody’s passed away, let’s do something right now,” Heller said.

“We want to certainly consult his wife Linda. We want to talk to the family and do something that represents him the way he should be,” he added.

“We’ll take our time, but we will certainly come up with something.”

Heller said prior to Clement’s passing he was very active.

“Still playing lots of tennis, still involved with the club, still organizing tournaments, looking after the back end, the finances, casinos, all that kind of stuff,” Heller said.

Heller described Clement as humble and kind, but a prankster.

“He’s kind of sly in the way he presents his jokes. You know, there’s many sides to him, a spiritual side to him. He has a great love of literature,” Heller said.

“I bet Ken would know more about you than you would know about him. That’s the kind of person he was,” he added.

“It wouldn’t be uncommon for a new member to join our club, and a week or so later he’d say, Cal, did you know so-and-so does this or so-and-so does that or this person’s kind of unique for that.”

Heller said that Clement made it his priority to get to know people and really appreciate them and understand them.

The Medicine Hat Tennis Club’s city singles tournament begins Thursday evening, set to run through Sunday with 35 players competing.

Games on Saturday will be moved to the evening, to give players the opportunity to attend the funeral of Clement on Saturday at 1 p.m.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Tennis Club starts season without key member

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