Clyde Fauley

Clyde Montana Fauley, passed away Jan. 29, 2014, at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.

He was born on March 27, 1924, to Clyde C. and Marie (Fratzke) Fauley at the home of Grandma Fredenberg, a midwife, in Kalispell.

When Clyde was a week old, he and his mother went by train to an area between Nyack and Essex where they were met by his father. His father then took them in a cable bucket across the Middle Fork of the Flathead River to the Paola Ranger Station in Glacier National Park where his father was a ranger.

The family then transferred to the Two Medicine Ranger Station in 1928. From the summer of 1929 until the spring of 1931, they were at the Nyack Ranger Station. They then moved back to Two Medicine, where they lived year-round until time for the children to start school. They then moved to East Glacier Park, where Clyde went to grade school.

In 1938, his father resigned from the Park Service and they moved to a ranch at Spotted Robe, between East Glacier and Browning. Clyde attended high school in Browning and stayed at the Indian dormitory, graduating from there in 1942.  

During World War II, Clyde was a bombardier gunner on a B-24 Liberator Bomber with the 8th Air Force based in England. The plane and crew were shot down over France in enemy territory nine days after D-Day but eventually were able to make it back to England.  

Following the war, he attended the University of Montana on a G.I. Bill of Rights and received a bachelor’s in forestry in 1950. The years from 1946 to 1958 were spent as a seasonal park ranger, on foreign construction and many other jobs, including the railroad and Glacier Park Transportation Company.

He worked under two 9-month contracts on air base construction in the Arctic in Greenland during 1954 and 1955. During 1957 and 1958, he worked on construction in Alaska at the Elmendorf Air Base out of Anchorage.  

Clyde then became a permanent employee with the National Park Service in Yosemite National Park in 1959, where he was a forestry crew foreman and was later promoted to assistant park forester.  

In 1960, he married Rae Marie Price, who grew up in Apgar and was the daughter of Glacier National Park road foreman Ray Price and wife Dorothy. She was a permanent employee in Glacier Park at the time of their marriage, and then moved to Yosemite where she worked seasonally.

While in Yosemite, Clyde was assigned to guard President John Kennedy’s door while he stayed at the Ahwahnee Hotel in August 1962. In January 1965, they were transferred to Crater Lake National Park. Clyde was a district ranger at Crater Lake.

In July of 1966, Clyde accepted a promotion to Grand Canyon National Park as the forestry and fire control officer and was also the park safety officer. They lived there until the spring of 1971, when Clyde happily accepted a transfer and promotion to Glacier National Park and they moved back home to Montana.

They first moved to East Glacier Park, where Clyde was the district manager for the east side of the Park. In 1974, he was moved to Park Headquarters at West Glacier, where he was the resources management specialist. He was responsible for forest fire, bear and other natural resources management, as well as addressing outside influences.

He prepared the “Threats to the National Parks” report for Glacier Park in 1980, resulting in Glacier Park receiving national recognition as the most threatened national park from outside influences. From 1982 to 1983, he was the park wilderness specialist.

Also, from 1971 to 1975, he was fire boss on an Inter-Agency Forest Fire Overhead Team subject to dispatch out of the Western Inter-Agency Fire Center in Boise. He and his team were dispatched to large project forest and range fires in Alaska, Utah, Nevada and Montana. Other large fire experience included California, Washington and the 1967 fire in Glacier Park.

On April 29, 1983, Clyde retired from the National Park Service with 33 years of federal service (three years military) and spent his last day on the job as acting superintendent of Glacier National Park. On July 14, 1983, he was presented the Department of the Interior’s Meritorious Service Award by Secretary of the Interior James Watt in person. Secretary Watt was in the park for the 50th Anniversary of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

After retirement, Clyde filled his time with reading, gardening, karaoke and daily hikes to the post office with his Norwegian elkhounds. He had a great love for all animals. At the Veterans Home, he always looked forward to visits from friends and family and his dog. He opened his eyes for the last time when he received a gentle little nudge from his beloved dog, Bear.

He was preceded in death by his parents; and a nephew, Collin Fauley.  

He is survived by his wife Rae Marie, of Lakeside; brother Carlyle Fauley and wife Theresa, of Lakeside; brother Howard Fauley and wife Eve, of St. Maries, Idaho; sister Alice Peterson, of Libby; nephews Kenny and Larry Peterson, and Chuck Fauley; and nieces, Honora Burns and Tammy Fauley, as well as his wife’s niece Jeanne Price, and her two nephews Ray and Will Price.

Visitation will take place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 3 at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home. Celebration of life services will take place at 11 a.m. Monday at the Lakeside Community Chapel in Lakeside. Burial will follow at the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery.  

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Lakeside Community Chapel, Montana Veterans Home or a local animal shelter.