Buck (Marshall) Lowell, 102

Buck (Marshall) Lowell died peacefully at home in Kalispell on Dec. 23, 2005. He was 102.

During his remarkable life he was a cowboy, baseball player, actor, stage driver, farmer and rancher, wood worker, retailer, boat builder, appraiser, pilot, golfer, avid outdoorsman, and husband and father. He was born the year the Wright brothers first flew a plane, and on his 100th birthday he celebrated by flying in a glider over the Flathead Valley. In the '60s he proudly served as a volunteer mounted deputy sheriff in Kalispell.

Those who knew Buck saw him as a Renaissance man who could do almost anything well. He succeeded at dealing with blindness and Parkinson's disease because, as he told the Inter Lake on his 100th birthday, "If you make up your mind, you'll handle whatever comes."

Born in the Green Mountains of Vermont, he came west in 1919, when the only highways were two ruts through the weeds. He met Ruth Slanger at a baseball game in Great Falls, married her, and the two celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last July.

Buck is survived by his wife, Ruth, of Kalispell; daughter, Marsha and Wally Jacobson, of Kalispell; son, Richard, of California; granddaughter, Holly; and grandson, Todd; great-granddaughter, Nicole; and great-grandson, Wyatt.

At Buck's request, there will be no funeral. The family will plan a memorial gathering at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations to Home Options Hospice at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.