Van Kirke Nelson

Dr. Van Kirke Nelson, 83, passed away at home on April 18, 2015, surrounded by his family.

He was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on June 18, 1931, the only child of Harold and Sara (Van BusKirk) Nelson. They moved to Los Angeles where, shortly after, his mother died of tuberculosis.

After high school, Kirke went on to East Los Angeles Junior College, then to the University of Southern California where he completed his bachelor’s degree and obtained his medical degree.

During his senior year in medical school he met his sweetheart, Helen, a Canadian nurse working at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. Kirke and Helen were married on Feb. 21, 1958, in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Before setting up a practice in Kalispell at the Buffalo Block in 1962, he worked as the emergency doctor for the Pasadena Police Department and subsequently for the Kalispell Hospital.

Over the course of his medical career, he performed countless surgical operations and delivered approximately 7,500 babies. With his family, he volunteered for Project Hope on the Navajo Reservation in 1971. Kirke served on the board of the Montana Medical Association and the Board of Medical Examiners for many years.

Kirke was an entrepreneur at heart, whether it involved dredging an old tour boat off the bottom of the lake and refurbishing it as the Far West, building the Kalispell Medical Arts building, working to establish the ALERT helicopter, helping found the Outpatient Surgical Center, opening Glacier Gallery or putting on community art shows with the Hockaday Museum of Art. He was an avid collector of Western art and artifacts and was active with the Montana Historical Society and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls.

He will be forever remembered by his wife Helen and their five children and their families, Greg Nelson, wife Gina and children Vale, Forest and Echo and husband Brian; Julie Mitchell, husband Doug and children Garrett and Andrew; Kathy Nelson, husband Chris Sauvé and children Emma and Julia; Nancy Maxwell and children Sierra, Jandi and Hanna; and Doug Nelson, wife Karen and children Michelle, Jessica, Weston, Rachel and Lauren.  

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ALERT, the Flathead Food Bank, the Hockaday Museum of Art, Flathead Valley Community College Nursing, or Kidsports.

A memorial reception will be held at the Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp, south of Lakeside on Lutheran Camp Road, on Sunday, May 17, 2015, from 2 to 5 p.m. Casual, outdoor attire. Parking is limited.