Albert Phillip "Abby" Waggoner

Albert Phillip Waggoner passed away at his home peacefully in his sleep in Whitefish Saturday, Aug. 7, 2004.

He was born April 22, 1919, in Turin, Alberta, Canada, to Alexander and Gertrude Waggoner.

Abby, or A.P., as many referred to him, was an explorer, a sailor, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a friend. He never met a stranger, and a stranger will never forget meeting him.

Abby moved to the Ferdig, Mont. area at an early age and was schooled in Ferdig and Oilmont through the eighth grade. He worked in oil fields digging ditches by hand as a young man and then in the oil drilling industry. Abby was in the CCC in Belt Mountains.

He married Bess Badger in 1939 prior to enlisting in the Navy in 1941. He served in World War II and the Korean War. After WWII he worked in the oil industry and was in the propane distribution business in Havre until being recalled for Korea. After the Korean War, he returned to Cut Bank, where he and Bess raised their two children, John and Phyllis. He worked for Montana Oilwell Cementers before operating his own Texaco service station. He was an entrepreneur, bringing the first large four-wheel-drive Wagner tractors to the Hi-line wheat farmers. He went back to the drilling industry with Gene Lansford as Waggoner-Lansford Drilling Co. in 1956, becoming A P Waggoner Drilling Co in 1957. He was a founder of General Well Service in 1962. He was always a "wildcatter," gambling everything on the next well and hoping to hit the big one! In 1975, he and Bess began their move to Whitefish where they joined friends and family for the remainder of their lives.

Abby was always ready and eager to help people and developed a wide variety of friends in his travels over the years. He spent many hours each day keeping in touch with these friends and family on the phone. He loved golfing, a good steak, and fishing, and spent many hours on the lakes around Whitefish.

Bess preceded him in death in 1988. Abby is survived by his two children, son John and wife Jennie of Sheridan, Wyo. and their children, Lindsey of Billings, and RJ and wife Anna of Helena; Abby's daughter, Phyllis Sprunger and husband Randy of Whitefish, their children, Erin of San Francisco and Stephannee of Thornton, Colo. He is also survived by his brother George Waggoner and family of Whitefish, sisters Orva Cochran of Shelby and her family, and Ila Larson and her family of Spokane, Wash., as well and many nephews and nieces.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, Aug. 13 at 10:30 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 301 Central Avenue, Whitefish.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the National Gaucher Foundation, 5410 Edson Lane, Suite 260, Rockville, MD 20852-3130, 800.428.2437, www.gaucherdisease.org, in memory of Albert Waggoner and in honor of granddaughter Erin Sprunger.