In what turned out to be an intimate gathering of more than 100 people, members of the Yukon's academic circle honoured the late Aron Senkpiel with a memorial at Yukon College Tuesday afternoon.

Senkpiel, who passed away in 2003, was remembered as an important figure in northern education, the development of Yukon College, the development of the Northern Research Institute, Canada's contribution to the University of the Arctic, and as the founding senior editor of The Northern Review.

Senkpiel, who was with Yukon College from 1987 until the time of his death, was honoured by family, friends, Yukon and visiting academics as well as by the scores of political and community figures who attended the memorial in his honour.

A plaque, showing Senkpiel in the wilderness of the North, will be posted in the college. As well, the cover of volume 27 of The Northern Review, due to be published in the fall, will feature Senkpiel and his contributions to northern education.

'If he was here, he would be standing here wondering what all the fuss was about,' said Elaine Senkpiel, Aron's wife of 28 years, highlighting what she and others described as his humility.

'He really loved the Yukon; I think it's fair to say he would consider this tribute an honour,' she said.

College president Sally Webber, who unveiled the plaque, described Aron as a 'friend' who cared about the territory and the quality of education available to the residents of the North.

'His first love was teaching. He understood that building northern education was done one student at a time and one family at a time.

'He understood that northern education had to be relevant to their lives,' Webber said.

Greg Poelzer, a visiting academic and Canadian administrator in the University of the Arctic, recounted his memories of Senkpiel and Aron's contribution to the U of A, a virtual university that includes northern nations from around the circumpolar world and focuses on northern students and northern issues.

'It is an honour and a privilege to be here,' said Poelzer, who works out of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

'(Senkpiel) has made a profound contribution to the circumpolar North. He was a man of great substance and character; an unpretentious academic.

'His fingerprints can be seen at Yukon College, the University of the Arctic and The Northern Review.

'He's made a huge impact on an international level,' Poelzer said of Senkpiel.

Amanda Graham, the college's resident expert on northern affairs, led the memorial. She also expressed her gratitude to the man and his contribution to the North.

She asked everyone to share in her pride that while Aron's mantra, 'in the North, for the North and by the North', was coined in the Yukon, it was now on the lips of people around the world.