He was a larger-than-life character who was passionate about everything he did.

That's how many around the territory are remembering Ghuch Tia Community School principal Brian Shanahan, who died of a heart attack at the age of 60 early this week while vacationing in the Philippines.

"Brian lived large," Dave Sloan, a superintendent of schools with the Department of Education's public schools branch, said in an interview Thursday.

Among school principals and education officials in the territory, Shanahan had earned the nickname "Shenanigans", and was known for doing things first and asking permission later.

His nickname is one that probably could have applied throughout his life.

As his long-time friend Doug Rody recalled, Shanahan was very much the same person in childhood he was as an adult.

"There's lots of stories about Brian and some might even be true," Rody said.

Rody and Shanahan both moved to the Stanrock mine area near Elliott Lake, Ont. around the same time as children.

As Shanahan's profile on the Carcross school's website notes, he and his family immigrated from Tipperary, Ireland to the mine in 1957.

There, Rody and Shanahan met and became friends, riding the bus into school at Elliott Lake each day.

"Brian was definitely the leader of the group," Rody said, recalling a friend who had a natural curiosity, which, as a child, often translated into trouble.

"He was one of the most energetic, gregarious people I've met. To know Brian was to love him."

It was in about Grade 6 or 7 that the Shanahans, a large family including Shanahan's brother and seven sisters, left Elliott Lake and Rody lost touch with his friend.

Moves to the Yukon years later would see Rody and Shanahan reconnect.

It was in the 1960s that Shanahan attended F.H. Collins Secondary School, dropping out in Grade 10 to work at the United Keno Hill mine.

"Many years later, I returned to school and worked like a mule and managed to obtain a Bachelor of Education degree," Shanahan wrote in his profile on the school's website.

His years in the territory saw him live in Elsa, Mayo, Watson Lake, Whitehorse and Carcross.

He also had a varied career doing everything from driving truck, working as a millwright at the CanTung mine in the Northwest Territories and serving in the air force before heading back to school to become a teacher.

It was perhaps that natural curiosity that led Shanahan through the wide variety of jobs he worked at as well as a move to Ireland for a couple of years, Rody said.

While Shanahan wasn't big on authority, Rody recalled his friend being involved with the air cadets as a child, which may have spurred his interest in flying and being part of the air force. At one point, Shanahan also had his private flying licence.

Not one to do anything half-measure, Rody and Sloan both recalled a man who was enthusiastic about everything he did.

Celebrating the end of his leg at the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay a few years ago during hot weather, Shanahan stripped down and made his way into a nearby lake only to come running out quickly when he was met by extremely cold temperatures in the water.

"He was in and out of that lake," Sloan said.

While everyone will recall his "crazy antics," friend Carmen Komish remembered a community-minded man living in Watson Lake in the 1970s, playing hockey, softball, curling and even showing up as a mascot to a number of community events.

His two daughters, who now live in Calgary, were around the same age as Komish's when they lived in Watson Lake.

As Shanahan noted in his profile on the web site: "I have two grown daughters named Jodie and Tanya whom I love very much indeed and miss a great deal."

Both Komish and Shanahan left for school in Alberta at the same time - Komish to become an animal health technologist and Shanahan pursuing his Bachelor of Education.

As Sloan recalled, it came as a shock to many in Watson Lake who knew Shanahan as a hard-partying type of guy when he decided to go to university to become a teacher.

It ended up being the right career move, that was made later in life, probably around the age of 40, Sloan said.

"He took to it like a duck to water," Sloan said.

Shanahan would return to the territory to teach, taking his first job at JV Clark School in Mayo.

"I taught there for six wonderful, rewarding years. I have a very fond place in my heart for Mayo and the wonderful people there," Shanahan wrote on the web site.

In some ways, he was like a kid himself and could connect well with his students, Komish said.

"He was such a fun person," she said.

His career would later take him to Carcross, where he had been principal for nearly a decade.

Having just been picked as an Outstanding Principal in Canada, he would have attended an awards ceremony in Toronto later this month. Sloan said the department is hopeful a representative will be able to accept the award for Shanahan.

"He was so right for the place," Sloan said of the school in Carcross, recalling the enthusiasm Shanahan had for every project that came up there.

Having the school painted was not enough for Shanahan. He had to have the walls appear like Bennett Lake with waves and water fowl underneath clouds in the sky.

So too it was for curtains the school ordered at one time. Rather than looking at what regulations there would be for the new curtains for the school's stage, Shanahan contracted a Carcross resident to do a black and red Tlingit design.

The project would have been a minor expense for the Department of Education, except that it didn't meet the criteria required, which meant that new curtains had to be ordered that met the proper requirements, Sloan recalled with a laugh.

The curtains that met the criteria were placed behind the Tlingit-designed curtains on the stage, Sloan recalled.

There was also a real desire from Shanahan to "do right" by his students in Carcross and incorporate first nation culture into the school.

That led to his involvement with the Carcross-Tagish First Nation's curriculum project (Star, Jan. 7), designed to give students a better understanding of traditional culture.

It was Shanahan who was instrumental in bringing teachers at the school on-board the project, curriculum developer Norma Shorty said Thursday.

"He was a wonderful man, a wonderful principal," she said.

Proud of the work that went into the curriculum project, Shanahan celebrated its start by sharing his own culture when he brought all the teachers and students into the school gym for a "fantastic" Irish stew. As they feasted on stew, learning centres dealing with the new curriculum were set up around the gym as a demonstration.

And when the idea of the Tlingit Alphabet project for the school was proposed, "Brian again opened his door," Shorty said.

It was easy to tell by the way he had set up the gym and any time they talked on the phone that Shanahan had a great respect for relationship between the school and first nation.

There's no doubt he'll be greatly missed, Shorty said, noting she had been looking forward to ongoing work he would be doing on the curriculum project.

"I'm immensely sad and sorry, but glad to have known him," she said.

Shanahan's enthusiasm also helped his school become the only elementary school in North America to have a CRTC licence for a radio station that broadcasts to the wider community. The programming is done by the students.

And while Shanahan told Sloan the call letters CIKO, pronounced "psycho", were assigned by the CRTC, Sloan noted he had his doubts, knowing Shanahan.

The halls of the school are a "mini-museum" thanks to Shanahan's display of artifacts from around Carcross, Sloan added.

An enthusiastic cheerleader for the school for many years, Shanahan had started looking toward retirement, was doing more travelling and was in the Philippines exploring the possibility of retirement there, Sloan said.

Shanahan had started travelling more in recent years and had loved the Philippines during his first trip there, Sloan said.

As staff and students mourn the loss of their principal, the department has sent a crisis response team from Whitehorse to Carcross to assist teachers and students this week.

And while the school has lost a leader, many more in the territory are feeling the loss of a good friend.

As both Sloan and Rody summed up, the lives of a lot of people are richer for having known Shanahan.

A memorial is planned for Saturday in Calgary with the possibility of a later one in Carcross, Sloan said.