Owens 'touched a lot of lives'

Memorial planned Saturday in Kalispell

Gaylon "Lum" Owens was a hard-working, determined businessman with a keen eye for good investments, but some who knew him best say he was also a fair and benevolent person who helped many people in Northwest Montana.

Owens died July 19 at age 73 at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

A celebration of his life is planned for Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell.

Owens ventured into logging, contracting, trucking and lumber businesses across the region, and was well-known as a cornerstone of local stock car racing, the "Granddaddy of Tri-City Speedway."

"He was a hell of a good partner, I'll tell you that," said Jim Hurst, who teamed up with Owens to start the Owens and Hurst lumber mill in Eureka in 1980. "We were partnered up for 28 years and that's longer than most people are married."

Hurst recalls that he was sawing logs at a portable sawmill near McGregor Lake when Owens, just an acquaintance at the time, stopped by. Lum had been in the logging business and knew of an opportunity to purchase a sawmill in Eureka. He just needed someone who could run it.

"He wanted to get into the mill business and I had some experience so it was a fit," Hurst said.

A third-generation Montanan whose grandparents homesteaded in the Silver Butte area west of Kalispell, Owens grew up with a talent for working on heavy equipment and vehicles. He got into stock car racing at the age of 16.

"The thing about my dad, he was a guy who started with virtually nothing," said his son, Mark Owens. "But he never quit trying to do better, to improve himself and challenge himself to be a better man."

He started with the purchase of a Mack logging truck, which led to an incrementally expanding trucking and logging businesses.

"People don't realize it, but I think he had more than 20 D-6 Cats when he was logging for Champion International," Hurst said.

While Hurst managed the Eureka mill operations, Owens kept the logs rolling.

"Lum's real expertise was in maintenance of our rolling stock," Hurst said. "We bought very little new log-yard machinery. Lum was a master at making sure that it ran and improving on what we bought."

Jim Bray's association with Owens stretches back to the early 1960s.

"We were involved in some business ventures, but the main thing is he was always a friend to me," Bray said. "He was a strong-willed man, but a fair and compassionate person too."

Mark Owens recalls that his dad helped many loggers and others.

"He had multiple friends that would get in trouble keeping up with payments and he would bail them out until they could catch up," he said. "He expected people to pay their own way, but he would help them in their time of need."

Owens was a successful stock car driver, the first to be inducted into the Raceway Park Hall of Fame in 1996. He raced until he was 63.

But Mark Owens said his dad prioritized his work and family over racing, which can be an all-consuming pursuit.

"He was a tremendous competitor on the racing side," he said. "But it was always secondary to his commitment to his work and family."

Owens worked with Bray to form Owens and Bray Trucking in 1983, a venture that mainly involved hauling wood chips from Eureka to the Stone Container mill in Missoula. The business ended in 2005 when the Owens and Hurst mill closed due to a lack of a reliable timber supply in the region.

Mark Owens estimates that over time, his father employed hundreds of people in his various business ventures.

"All of those jobs contributed to the local economy and those were good-paying jobs," he said. "Those types of entrepreneurial employers, over a lifetime, contribute a lot to the areas they operate in."

Hurst and Bray both predict a big turnout for Saturday's celebration.

"Lum touched a lot of lives and in 28 years that I knew him he was always fair and helpful," Hurst said. "He just quietly did a lot of things around here."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com