Late, great “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek will be a familiar face to generations of high school students who never got to see him on the iconic game show.
That’s because Sudbury Secondary School, the Canadian high school Trebek attended, now bears an incredible mural on one of its exterior walls. The mural depicts a mustachioed Trebek when he was just starting out, set against a blue, brown and white backdrop.
See a picture of the mural here:
Late ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Honored With Mural
Montreal-based mural artist Kevin Ledo painted the mural. The sweeping tribute to Trebek, a Sudbury native, is also thanks to the Up Here festival and the Rainbow District School Board.
“It was just perfect, in my mind, that I paint Alex Trebek,” Ledo told Sudbury.com last week. “I always just try to do my best work and I’m really just encouraged and happy that people are happy about it in this neighborhood.”
Ledo said it’s fitting that the mural overlooks an entrance to a place of learning, given the importance Trebek placed on knowledge and curiosity. As the artist listened to music and applied the final coat of paint in sweltering August heat, he added that he plans to jump in a lake after he finishes the mural.
“I’m just really in it now and I’m trying to get it done in the time I have allotted,” he told Sudbury.com. “It’s proven to be a little more difficult than I thought in terms of the surface of the wall. It’s very absorbent, so I’m having to put in more elbow grease, more paint than I thought. But it’s all a part of the process.”
Trebek Died of Pancreatic Cancer at Age 80
The legendary “Jeopardy!” host passed away on Nov. 8, 2020 of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He had battled the disease stoically, continuing to tape “Jeopardy!” episodes even when he was in pain.
Trebek’s wife Jean said the window between his diagnosis and his death afforded Trebek an opportunity few individuals have. He got to see how much he meant to people all around the world.
“I think one of the beautiful things, the blessings, that came [from this] – if you could call it a blessing – was that he got to really see the outpouring of love and admiration,” Jean said this past April. “And some people just, you know, you don’t see that while you’re still embodied, you don’t get to really witness all the love that people feel for you. And I know that that was, in and of itself, a huge inspiration for Alex.”
Trebek died peacefully at home, surrounded by family and friends.
