Rev. John Bruce Plummer, 93

Rev. John Bruce Plummer, 93, of Polson, died of natural causes early Tuesday morning, Nov. 20, 2007, at St. Joseph Hospital in Polson. Father Plummer was a Catholic priest for 67 years, and was the eldest priest in the Helena Diocese.

The second of six children, Father Plummer was born May 24, 1914, in Anaconda to John Bowling and Eleanor Brennan Plummer. The family moved to Missoula, where he attended St. Anthony's and Loyola High School. He played football in high school and at Carroll College, where he graduated in philosophy.

During his college years, Father Plummer held summer jobs with the state as a border inspector for fruit and vegetables, first in Noxon and then near Yellowstone National Park. In 1936, he entered St. Edward Seminary in Seattle. He was ordained as a priest at the Cathedral of Saint Helena on May 18, 1940. Father Plummer served as an assistant at the Cathedral in Helena and at St. Anthony Parish in Missoula, where he also was chaplain to the Newman Club. During this time, he had the responsibility of looking after Italian ship crews from New York who were interned at Fort Missoula. Father Plummer recalled that they were excellent cooks and were, on special occasions, allowed to sign out to cook meals for the priests.

He was named pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Ronan in August 1949. In 1956, he was named pastor of St. Ann Parish in Butte. In 1968, he was named pastor of St. Matthew Parish in Kalispell, and in 1977, he was named pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Polson. For several years, he served on the Carroll College board of trustees. Father Plummer retired in 1981.

After that, he lived in his beloved log cabin on the Narrows of Flathead Lake, except when he escaped the long, gray western Montana winters by going to Mexico or California. More recently he lived at St. Joseph Retirement Community.

As a young man, he spent a lot of time at his family's cabin on Placid Lake, rowing around the lake, fishing, relaxing, and working on the cabin there. In 1951, he purchased the Flathead Lake cabin on Lansing Point. Built in 1919, the rustic tamarack log structure was originally just the shell and porch. Father Plummer always had projects going at the cabin. One of the most significant changes was the addition of indoor plumbing and electricity. Visitors who had experienced the cabin's old outhouse had a true appreciation of that particular improvement. During another cabin project, a makeshift scaffold fell. Father Plummer fell with it onto the rocks below, severely injuring his back. As a result he had many back problems through the years.

The cabin became a focal spot for family gatherings and reunions, good times full of swimming, boating, water skiing, fishing, pancake-eating contests, hiking, skipping rocks, and just plain visiting. Infamous for his outrageous habit of speeding, both on land and out on the lake, Father Plummer went through an amazing number of boat propellers. For his nieces and nephews, as well as for many boys and girls from his parishes, staying at the cabin helped instill a love of and reverence for the outdoors. Father Plummer was the kind of person who could turn a summer night of patio stargazing into an expansive discussion of astronomy and physics.

He loved kokanee fishing, especially out by the Bird Islands. Many a boat ride included silently drifting and watching a fawn on the shore or bighorn rams clashing and clacking their horns at the water's edge on Wildhorse Island. He was also a world traveler. During reunions, he would give slide shows of his latest vacations to exotic foreign countries. While some family members were guilty of nodding off during those shows, others were inspired by Father Plummer's color photography of places such as Italy, India, Peru and China to develop their own lifelong habits of traveling.

Father Plummer was a gifted Renaissance man whose varied interests and accomplishments included: in 1965, designing and coordinating the construction of the new St. Ann Church in Butte; designing, commissioning and donating a unique stained-glass mural to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Polson; designing his sister Laurine's lake home; drawing and sketching; completing numerous rockwork projects; hand-carving exquisite wooden artwork; and creating gorgeous vases and bowls with a wood lathe in his lakeside shop.

He was a voracious reader. His floor-to-ceiling library shelves in the cabin living room held a dizzying array of literature, from Greek philosophers to Catholic theologians, from popular fiction to carpentry manuals.

Father Plummer's large family and his many friends will miss his distinctively dry sense of humor.

He was preceded in death by his parents; and all five of his siblings, Virginia (Dick), William, Laurine (Hartman), Robert and Richard.

Surviving him are his sister-in-law, Vada Plummer, of San Jose, Calif.; and numerous nieces, nephews and their families.

Funeral services will be held at Immaculate Conception Church in Polson.

Visitation will begin at the church at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, followed by the vigil service at 7 p.m. Mass of Christian burial will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, with concelebrants Monsignor Joseph Harrington, and the Revs. Gary Reller and Jim Connor. Burial will be at the Ronan Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Immaculate Conception Church in Polson, the Polson City Library, or a charity of choice. Condolences to the family may be sent to www.groganfuneralhome.com.