Bob Kitts, 1936-2024

Robert Kitts, an important figure in Canada’s Glengarry County piping and drumming community, died on July 26, 2024, in his eighty-ninth year.

Though not well known in the wider piping and drumming world, Bob Kitts introduced dozens, if not hundreds, of kids to the pipes through his tireless, voluntary teaching for more than five decades in the Maxville, Ontario, area.

Born in Glengarry County on June 28, 1936, Kitts started his piping career in 1951 when he lied about his age to join the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders militia. He later joined the Canadian military under Pipe-Major Archie Cairns.

After his army career, Kitts was pipe-major of the Optimist Club Pipe Band, the Auxiliary Police (OPP) Pipe Band, and the Cornwall Legion Pipe Band. In 1967, he re-joined the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders as pipe-major, and then the Lancaster Legion Pipes & Drums, later to become the South Glengarry Pipe Band, where he stayed until 2005.

Fittingly, just after the 75th anniversary Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, Ontario, there will be a celebration of Bob Kitts’s life on Monday, August 5th, at 11 a.m. at the Lions Club in Bonville/St. Andrews West, Ontario. Pipers and drummers are encouraged to bring their instruments for an informal band play in his honour.

We offer our sympathies to Bob Kitts’s family, friends and many piping pupils at this sad time.