Fond memories of Columbia Falls dentist who died in river accident

As a dentist, he would work on anyone’s teeth, even if they couldn’t afford to pay. As a fisherman, he had great skill. His grandson said he could catch a fish out of a mud puddle. As a father and grandfather, he pushed his children to succeed, and they did, both in sports and in life.

That was Dr. Michael Allen, friends and family said during a memorial service last week. Allen, of Columbia Falls, died what he loved doing, as he drowned in a boating accident while fishing on the Flathead River just above Pressentine Bar on Nov. 6.

According to Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry, Allen was with a friend when the aluminum boat they were in capsized. Allen was wearing chest waders.

A Two Bear Air helicopter found both men about two-thirds of a mile above the access.

Allen was removed from the water by a Two Bear Air paramedic. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. His friend was able to swim to shore, but suffered from hypothermia and was treated at the scene by Columbia Falls Ambulance.

“He was the best Dad in the world,” his daughter Brooke Cates said of Allen.

Allen took Brooke and her sister Robin on trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness as well as coached them through life on the basketball court. The Allen sisters were key members of the 1983 Columbia Falls girls basketball team that won its first-ever state championship, despite being the smallest AA school in the state.

As a dentist, Allen “took patients no matter what,” Brooke recalled. Patients paid what they could.

An avid fisherman, his love of the sport sometimes took a humorous turn. After one trip, he left the fish guts too long in the garbage near the house on a hot summer day.

The fish went rancid quickly and everyone complained about the stench, so Allen took some gasoline, poured it into the can and threw a match in.

Kaboom!

The guts and maggots feeding on them blasted through the trees in the front yard, Cates recalled to laughter from the packed church.

“It was such a dad thing to do,” she laughed.

There were other humorous tales. Brooke recalled Allen driving the snowmobile off the back of the pickup into the house. And once, when Brooke and Robin got into an argument, he gave the girls boxing gloves and let them duke it out.

His wife, Ann, was not impressed with his parenting skills, as the girls came out of the row with puffy eyes and banged-up faces.

Allen was born in Conrad and grew up in Cut Bank and was an outstanding athlete in basketball and baseball. When Cut Bank got new floors in its gym, they sent him a piece of the old gym floor, noting he was the best basketball player in the school’s history.

He attended the University of Montana on a basketball scholarship and later left for pre-med studies at the University of North Dakota. He went to Marquette Dental School in 1961 and after a stint in the military, he set up his dental practice in Columbia Falls in 1968.

His grandson Coby Cates also fished with Allen on many occasions. Coby recalled losing one of Allen’s prized rods when he was 12. They went to Snappy’s Sports Senter and bought another one.

Later in life, Allen went fishing with Coby in Oregon. Along the river, Allen fell on a rock and broke one of Coby’s rods.

But Allen still caught all the fish, even with a rod that was a foot shorter than it should have been.

“He could catch fish out of a mud puddle,” Coby joked.

Coby plans on studying medicine as well, following in his grandfather’s footsteps.

Allen is survived by his wife, Ann Marie, daughter Robin Barnhart (Duane), and grandchildren Michael and Molly Ann of Spokane; daughter Brooke Cates (Scott) and grandchildren Coby, Jace and Cianne of Canby, Oregon; sister Pat Ann Hill (Roni), and nieces Roni Lee Rankin (Jim) and Kim Santana (John), both of Boise, Idaho.