VonLindern was a pioneer in local search and rescues

Hungry Horse News

Jack VonLindern, a longtime volunteer with the North Valley Search and Rescue Association died from natural causes March 6. He was 85.

His career with search and rescue spanned more than 50 years.

It started with a phone call in June of 1958. It was Flathead County Sheriff Dick Walsh. There had been a drowning in Flathead Lake and he needed divers to recover the body. VonLindern moved to Columbia Falls the year before after spending four years in the U.S. Navy. He still had his scuba gear. 
He answered the call, he said in a 2010 interview.

Over the course of his career in search and rescue, he estimated he’d been involved in about 30 body recoveries.

Outside of rescues, he also snorkeled in area rivers just for fun.

VonLindern went on to volunteer with the Flathead County Search and Rescue. Eventually the group split and the North Valley Search and Rescue was formed.

Besides diving himself, VonLindern helped train many divers in rescue.

He developed a method for river rescue.

“We had a policy to never use an air tank in the river,” he said. “A tank acts like a sail with the currents. It bangs you around. It’s better to snorkel. Divers had to be able to snorkel 50 feet. Other than holes, the rest of the river is pretty shallow.”

Much of what VonLindern learned in those early years came from reviewing missions.

“We built off the cuff,” he said “Then looked over the mistakes and try to improve.”

VonLindern’s previous experience in diving came from sport diving while
he was in the military. He served as an electrician, but during leave he would dive with friends.

This was before scuba gear was commercially available. His first oxygen tank was from a jet flight pack. His regulator was made by copying a friend’s. In 1955 he bought his first commercial gear in Hawaii.

VonLindern moved to Columbia Falls to work for Anaconda Aluminum Co. In the fall of 1958 he married. Together with his wife, Jan, they raised four children.

Both were active community volunteers. Jan continues to volunteer with the Columbia Falls Food Bank. Jack spent 41 years on the Woodlawn Cemetery Board.

VonLindern was fully committed to search and rescue.

“When our son was born, Jack brought us home from the hospital then grabbed his diving bag,” Jan said in a 2010 interview. “He left for three days.”

Besides diving, he was also involved in land rescue. One mission lasted 20 days as divers searched for a body. He would go out for a few days, return home to work, and then go back out.

There were happy endings.

One in particular involved a 3-year-old girl who wondered from a campground. Searchers canvassed the area. About a mile and a half from camp, fellow searcher Jack Thompson heard something. It was the girl crying.

“She had lost her shoes and had welts on her from bee stings,” VonLindern said. “He picked her up and carried her back. She didn’t want to let go of him.”

North Valley Search and Rescue received letters from the girl’s mother in Wisconsin thanking searchers and describing how the girl was growing up. Then as the girl grew older, she would write once a year, even as she married and had a family of her own.

“That’s really where the reward is,” VonLindern said. “If it’s one of your own, you stay with it until you find the person.”

In all of the missions over the years, VonLindern estimates that only about a half dozen ended without finding the person.

VonLindern retired from the Bonneville Power Administration and then volunteered almost full-time at Woodlawn Cemetery, helping maintain the city’s cemetery on the east side of town, including upgrading the water system and paving the interior roads.

He said he enjoyed the volunteering over the years.

“It’s been as good a hobby as any,” he said.

A private family service has been held. A celebration of life is planned for later this summer.