Bruce Stewart

Bruce I. Stewart passed away April 4, 2013, at the Immanuel Lutheran Home of natural causes.

He was born Dec. 13, 1920, to Robert Fulton Stewart and Rosa Grace Tucker in Spokane, Wash. When Bruce was a small child, the family moved to Havre, where they raised five children in town during the school year and on a ranch in the Bear Paw Mountains during the summer.

Bruce attended high school and college in Havre and was a master machinist by age 21. He moved to Seattle and worked for Boeing aircraft through the end of World War II.

He met and married Missoula native Vera Van Ostrand while at Boeing and had the first two of their four children while living in Seattle. After the war, the couple moved to Hungry Horse where Bruce worked on the construction of Hungry Horse Dam and Vera ran Stewart’s Drive Inn.

At the end of dam construction, Bruce partnered with Tom Ladenburg and started Stud Timber Co. When their partnership ended, Bruce opened Chipmunk Timber Co. The family moved to Bigfork in 1968, and Bruce closed his logging business and went back to full-time machinist work for Plum Creek, where he worked until retirement in 1988.

Bruce was an avid outdoorsman, spending as much time as possible in a boat, an ice house or behind the scope of his rifle. He was a patient teacher of woods craft and spent countless hours with all of his children and their families in the great outdoors of Montana.

He was preceded in death by his parents; all four of his siblings; his daughter Karalee Koppang; and son in law Len Patterson.

He is survived by his wife Vera, at Buffalo Hills Terrace in Kalispell; son Don Stewart and daughter-in-law Judy, of Columbia Falls; son-in-law Ron Koppang, of Oregon City, Ore.; daughter Cindy Patterson, of Columbia Falls; daughter Shelley Borden and son-in-law Brad, of Kalispell; grandson Tyler Stewart, his wife Elaine and great grandson Alex, of Missoula; grandson Chris Stewart, great granddaughter Clare and great grandson Mason, of Columbia Falls; granddaughter Riona Tilley and her husband Andre, granddaughter Shanin Prusia, her husband Christian and great grandsons Cole and Owen, all of Portland, Ore.; and grandson Clayton Patterson, of Columbia Falls.

Cremation has taken place. A celebration of his life will take place at Bitterroot Lake in the late summer.

Monetary donations will be forwarded the Fish, Wildlife and Parks youth program “Hooked on Fishing.” In lieu of flowers, take the rest of the day off and take a child fishing.