The founder and namesake of one of Wichita’s most famous dive bars has died, locals who knew him said.
Jim Kirby, who opened Kirby’s Beer Store in 1972 at 3227 East 17th Street (across from the Wichita State University campus), recently died in Seattle, where he lived for 46 years. Kirby, 79, died Friday, Dec. 19, according to Kirby’s co-owner Alex Thomas.
Although Kirby has long since left Wichita, he still occasionally returns to visit the bar he founded. In May 2022, he was in town for Kirby’s 50th birthday celebration.
Kirby was born in Oklahoma City and moved to Wichita with his family when he was in elementary school. He is a graduate of East High School.
In 2022, he told The Eagle that when he was in his 20s, a tavern near Washington State University was put up for sale. He purchased the small bar, which soon attracted a diverse crowd that included not only people from the surrounding community, but also WSU students and professors.
Kirby’s Beer Store was founded in 1972 by Jim Kirby.
Kirby was famous for placing silly ads in the WSU campus newspaper, The Sunflower, to promote the bar, and Kirby’s Bar was especially popular with professors and students in WSU’s English, Psychology, and Geology departments.
When he owned the bar, Kirby hosted a trivia night and invited singer/songwriters to perform on acoustic guitars. He also joined the Kirby softball team, which was made up of regulars, and joined the local “Beer League”
During his time in charge of Kirby’s, he offered free potato soup lunches on Saturdays and offered “What do you want on a dime?” coffee.
Kirby eventually sold the pub to a group of geology professors, and it went through several changes of ownership since then. Today, it has become a place to enjoy live music.
In 1979, Kirby moved to Seattle, where his father worked for Boeing, and where he lived until his death.
Thomas, who bought the pub in 2008, posted on social media that he planned to hold some kind of memorial for Kirby locally after the holidays.
“Jim lived an adventurous life and was a man of many talents,” Thomas said in the post. “I’ve been lucky enough to get to know him over the past few years.”
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