"Calvin R. Fulkerson joined the heavens and stars above on November 11th, 2020, after a short and sudden illness complicated by a long and hard-fought battle with multiple myeloma. Quite frankly, Cal, we wouldn’t be more surprised if we woke up tomorrow with our heads sown to the carpet. All quippy comments and Christmas Vacation references aside, as we could not possibly deliver with your same wit or sarcasm, we are saddened but celebrating your incredible life.
Truly one of the best of a fleeting breed of true trial lawyers, Calvin loved the law and the people in it. He reveled and flourished in the courtrooms of Central and Eastern Kentucky and loved nothing better than a chili dog and banana split blizzard after an easy motion hour or a dramatic jury trial. He was privileged to work with amazing lawyers in our legal community and was proud to serve as General Counsel and Ethics Counsel at McBrayer. He served as a mentor and friend to many young lawyers, especially Kyle Virgin whom he loved and admired for his steadfast loyalty, quick wit and shared love of UK basketball and the Cincinnati Reds.
Calvin served dearly as our Cal, Daddy, Papaw, Pater Famlilius, Esquire and sometimes even our Pappy if you’re six and testing his patience. He was beyond blessed to have the love of his wife, Cindy, and her steadfast, and sometimes tough, support and care. His two daughters, Erin (Derek) Hall and Kelsey (Justin) Tereshko, were the brightest stars in his sky and the proudest achievements of his life. They were eclipsed only by the unabashed love for his grandchildren, sweet Ella, Briggs, Beckett and the yet twinkling in his eye, beautiful Charlotte Ray.
Cal is survived by his mother, Mary Alice; siblings Ron (Sharon) Fulkerson, Susan (Scotty) Webb, Debbie (Ova) Carman, Gary Wayne (Tracy) Fulkerson; and many amazing nieces and nephews. He was quite the ballplayer in his hometown of Clarkson and across the state. Dubbed “small but slow,” he was the state’s leading scorer for a time. And just in case he hadn’t already told you, that was before the inception of the three-point line. He continued his basketball career at Transylvania University under Coach Don Lane and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1980. He loved basketball, golf, watching his girls play tennis, modeling paper crowns for his grandchildren, a warm fire, a pot of chili with his people, a cozy nap in his chair and most importantly a heavy pour of single malt scotch.
He was blessed with many pseudo-children and welcomed all in to his home and around his Thanksgiving table. Cal endeared himself to so many and cherished his friendships new and old, especially his beloved “adopted” son, Mabruk Quabili with whom he shared many hearty laughs and cherished memories. Although our table will be small this year, a zoom could not provide enough screens to capture all those who have shared a special moment with Calvin over the years. We hold all those people and all those memories very close this year and will follow tradition with our annual viewing (and official start of the holiday season) of Christmas Vacation.
Calvin’s family would like to thank Dr. Gregory Monohan and all the nurses and staff at the Hematology/Medical Oncology Department at the Markey Cancer Center for their dedication to Calvin’s care over the past twelve years.
We will remember you in the stars Daddy. We picked a suitable one to look on each night as we pray. It’s very bright, a little round, far enough to provide humorous color commentary on the chaos below but close enough to hear your sweet lullaby in the wind.
A graveside service will be held on Tuesday, November 17th at 11AM at Lexington Cemetery. We encourage you to honor Calvin in your own way in this unprecedented time but if you’ll be attending the service we ask that you please wear a mask and practice social distancing. As much as we’d enjoy your loving embrace, we’ll put a little raincheck on that and get back to it very soon. Should you feel moved to contribute to a cause we hold dear, donations may be made in Cal’s memory to Crestwood Christian Church, please designate the Seed Fund in the memo line (to seed new ministries), 1882 Bellafonte Drive, Lexington, Kentucky 40503."
View Calvin's obituary on the Kerr Brothers site: https://www.kerrbrothersfuneralhome.com/obituaries.php?view=detail&id=14948
