Albert Stinger

Albert Stinger passed away on March 14, 2006 as a result of a lingering illness.

Al was born New Years Day in 1918 on homestead land West of Ronan and grew up farming and working in that area. During the Great Depression, Al joined the CCC in 1935. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in December 1941 to defend America.

In 1943, while training in the southern states, he met and married Pearlys (Gilbert) Stinger. He served in the South Pacific as a mechanic on B-29 bombers based on Tinian Island and supported the strategic bombing of the Japanese mainland. After his honorable discharge in 1945, he rejoined his bride and young son Dennis in Montana.

He began his career as a cement finisher working on the dam at Hungry Horse while living on the shore of Blanchard Lake near Whitefish. Al and Pearlys made their home in Columbia Falls where Al participated in the construction of the aluminum plant.

In 1958 the family, now with three boys and a daughter, moved to a small farm at Seven Hills in Bigfork, where he lived out the remainder of his life. As a union worker and an independent contractor, Al worked in the masonry trades until retirement. His career took him from construction on the capital building in Tallahassee, Fla., to the far north Alaska oil pipeline terminal in Valdez.

As the residents of the Flathead go about their way today, they walk the sidewalks and travel the concrete streets formed by the hard-working hand of Albert and his sons.

He is preceded in death by his brothers Frank, Edward and Henry and his sister Mary Stinger (Nelson). Albert is survived by Pearlys, his loving wife of 63 years, his sisters Emily Zimmerman and Josephine Atkinson of Spokane, Wash., and Delores Burch of Condon. Also his children and their spouses Dennis Stinger and Donna Van-Heel of Billings, Kelvin and Betty Stinger of Trego, daughter Delrea and her husband, Doug Billmayer of Bigfork and Lonnie and Betty Stinger of Deer Park, Wash. His legacy continues with many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Al was buried at the Lone Pine Cemetery in Bigfork on Thursday, March 16, 2006, in a service attended by his close family and friends with full military honors. His life and legacy was celebrated in a moving ceremony given by Troy Holt of the Glacier Mountain Fellowship.

A community memorial service is pending.