Oystein Boveng
Oystein Mathias Boveng, 81, of Kalispell, died Nov. 7, 2014, with his wife and children at his side.
He was born in 1932 at Sandar, Norway, the first child of Paul and Martha Helene Tutvedt. In 1945, the family changed their name to Boveng, a surname from a branch of their family tree dating back to the early 1600s.
Oystein, his parents and his sisters Liv Anne and Tele emigrated to Galata in 1947. After a brief period of operating his uncle Martin’s homestead farm, the family moved to Kalispell, where Oystein attended Flathead High School in the class of 1951.
He brought his love of skiing from Norway and further honed his skills by competing in all four events (slalom, downhill, jumping and cross-country) during high school and at Montana State College in Bozeman, where he earned a degree in architecture.
He returned to Kalispell and met the love of his life and wife of 57 years, Gail Torgerson. With their first child, Peter, they pulled up stakes and moved to Sandefjord, Norway in 1961 but were drawn back to the Flathead Valley after just one year. A son, Arne, and daughter, Kirsten, soon rounded out the family.
They backpacked together in the summer and skied together in the winter, often decked out in Gail’s hand-knit Norwegian sweaters. Oystein and Gail courted on the ski slopes and together they tore up the snow in the early days of the Big Mountain ski area.
Their close group of skiing friends evolved into beloved social groups such as the Over-the-Hill Gang and Gail’s sewing club that long outlasted most of their members’ skiing days. He helped found the Kalispell Ski Club, taught skiing and coached junior competitors, and developed cross-country ski trails with his long-time friend Jon Elliot. Oystein felt humbled to be among the five inaugural inductees to the Ski Heritage Center Hall of Fame in 2013.
Oystein’s modernist designs and engineering are reflected in many buildings around northwest Montana, including the Summit House at Whitefish Mountain Resort, Grouse Mountain Lodge, the visitors’ centers at Logan Pass and St. Mary, Northridge Lutheran Church, several banks and schools, the skating shelter and Community Spirit Monument in Woodland Park, and the Northridge area home he built and lived in for 49 years.
Oystein is survived by his wife Gail; children Peter, Arne and Kirsten (Purdy); sister Tele (Triggs); grandchildren Nicole (Randall), Karl, Sydney, Hanne, Maia Purdy and Lars Purdy; and great-grandson Orry Randall.
Services were held Nov. 16, 2014, at Northridge Lutheran Church.