Henry Paul Boyle, 75
Henry Paul Boyle, also known as Monikopi, meaning Young Man Who Knows Many Things, a name given to him by Tom Dog Taking Gun when Henry was an infant, died in Great Falls on Friday, Sept. 19, 2008. He was 75 years of age.
Henry died of complications from 20 years of breathing the smoke from smoldering tobacco and paper, 32 years of drinking alcohol in many forms, and a lifetime of consuming caffeine in coffee, tea and chocolate, which contributed to his death from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Henry was a member of the Blackfeet (Pekuni) Tribue of Browning, born in the Indian Health Service Hospital at the Cut Bank Creek Indian Boarding School at 10:30 a.m. July 9, 1933.
He was a past member of the Moose Lodge, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Fleet Reserve, and the American Legion.
Henry was also an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous and Co-Dependents Anonymous, and in later years, the Great Falls Writers Group and Blackfeet Warrior Society. He served on the vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. He also left his legacy in many places as a published author of the written word.
He was with the U.S. Navy for 26 years, serving on two aircraft carriers, USS Yorktown and the USS Kitty Hawk, in the waters off Korea and Vietnam during those two undeclared wars. Henry called the carriers Ticonderoga, Ranger, Kearsarge, Independence, and Forrestall, as well as the foregoing two, his homes away from home at different periods of his life. He retired as an aviation ordnanceman chief petty officer.
Henry Paul is survived by his wife, Marcia Louise Lauzon, of Great Falls; daughter, Jennifer Kathleen LaPier, of East Glacier Park; stepdaughter, Elizabeth Schalk Aronoff, of Missoula; stepson, Kenneth Charles Schalk, of Worcester, Mass.; sisters and brothers, Shirley Gobert of Browning, Deanna Williams of Oak Harbor, Wash., Harvey Boyle of Grants Pass, Ore., Marvin Boyle of Anacortes, Wash., and Patricia Morgenthaler of Roseburg, Ore.; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Frank; his mother, Frances; and his sister, Muriel Lorraine LaPier.
Cremation has taken place. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, at Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 600 Third Ave. N., in Great Falls. A reception will be afterward for family and friends in the church parish hall. Inurnment will be afterward at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the YCWA Mercy Home, 220 Second St. N., Great Falls, MT 59401.