Hale Centre Theatre missing its beloved Scrooge, Richard Wilkins

HCT’s “A Christmas Carol” has long become a family affair for the entire Wilkins clan. Wife Melany and their four children have been cast in many lead roles. Although Melany finds it too difficult to continue on in this year's production, their youngest son, Rex, who recently returned from an LDS Church mission in Washington, will move forward as a member of the choir, opting for “Grandma (Ruth) Hale’s” philosophy that “theater is therapy.”

“He feels that’s what his dad would have wanted,” says Dietlein, acting as spokeswoman for the family.

When she pictures Wilkins playing Ebenezer Scrooge, she imagines the moment where, humbled and transformed, the repentant hero falls to his knees in solemn promise, reciting Dickens’ immortal words: “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

“He lived that,” she says. “He honored that promise and did a lot — not just on our little stage, but on the world stage.”