Ev Lundgren remembered by family, friends, community

Friends, family and the better part of the West Glacier community came together last week to remember Everett Lundgren.

Lundgren was one of the founding partners of the West Glacier business community. He died Feb. 26, 2012 — the last survivor of the four founding partners who made West Glacier and Apgar what it is today.

After World War II, Ev, an engineer with aircraft manufacturer Boeing, purchased the business in West Glacier with his father, Dan Sr., Dan’s brother Conrad and family friend Dave Thompson from Henry Hutchings, George Stack, Ed Swetnam and Herbert Chatterton. At the time, it was known as the Belton Mercantile.

The new partners changed the name to West Glacier and ran the business together until 1976, when Thompson sold his interest in the business to the other partners.

Ev’s primary responsibility was to run the gas station and the motel, but he was also a visionary, urging the partners to purchase land inside the Park at Apgar, where they have rental cabins and a gift shop.

The Lundgrens always maintained the look and charm of the original Mercantile, and they were commended for it by the National Park Service and Secretary of Interior William Mott in 1987.

“He was a significant part of the awareness and vision of the business,” said Bill Lundgren, who along with cousin Rob, run the business today.

Ev was a man of few words, but when he did make a point, it mattered.

“He always said staying busy with family, friends and work is always No. 1,” his daughter Laurel Parratt recalled.

Ev was an ardent fishermen, hunter, hiker and climber. He went on goose hunting trips each fall in Alberta, Canada, and climbed Mount Cleveland and Chief Mountain with his son-in-law, Monty Parratt.

Bill recalled a Fourth of July when Ev caught a whale of a fish.

“It was a Dolly Varden that was 14 pounds,” he said. “He was on the moon. Thrilled like a kid to have a day like that in a place like this.”

Ev was also a conservationist. He built and maintained a host of bluebird boxes in West Glacier.

Ev was lifelong friends with Park staff as well, including former superintendents Bob Haraden and Phil Iverson. Both attended the ceremony.

“There are no greater Park friends and supporters than the Lundgrens,” Haraden said.

His granddaughter Kim Schneider summed up Ev’s life well lived. She recalled when they were driving in West Glacier and stopped at the T-intersection of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and Camas Road.

Ev looked at her and said, “Man, what a life.”