A son's death, a father's mission

Ian Hineman would have been so proud Saturday.

He would have donned his cap and gown and marched into Flathead High School’s gymnasium with the rest of the Class of 2010.

His parents, Scott and Jane, would have fairly burst their buttons when they heard their son’s name called and saw him accept his diploma.

Saturday’s graduation ceremony would have been the culmination of four years of hard work.

But Ian’s life was cut short Dec. 21, 2008, when he died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

He was 17.

Scott Hineman has been busy ever since, campaigning for greater awareness of carbon monoxide’s dangers and working to promote “Ian’s Challenge” — discounts on carbon monoxide detectors — and help pass laws requiring carbon monoxide detectors in all homes.

In 2009, the state of Montana passed a law mandating detectors in all new houses and rentals. Now Hineman wants to see similar laws in every state.

“We’re making the best out of what we can from Ian’s loss. The carbon monoxide issue — I’m on that for the rest of my life,” he said in a phone interview Thursday.

Despite having a purpose that will help him save lives, there is still a hole in Hineman’s heart. A movie he watched Wednesday night helped him articulate the feeling.

“Have you ever seen the movie ‘Ghost Town’?” he asked.

In the film, Ricky Gervais has a near-death experience that allows him to see ghosts. The dead then recruit Gervais to help them resolve issues from their lives.

“It’s about unfinished business of people that die,” Hineman said. “After I watched that movie, I felt like, this is it. This is what Saturday is all about.

“Ian, he gets his diploma. He gets to move on.”

Ian isn’t the only one who gets to move on, Hineman said.

“Getting this diploma really helps my heart,” he said. “It fulfills Ian’s wish. School was everything to him.”

Ian attended Cayuse Prairie School through the eighth grade, then spent a year at what was then Kalispell Junior High School. He entered Flathead as a sophomore in fall 2007.

For two years, “he was the golfer at Flathead High,” Hineman said proudly.

Ian began golfing as a 4-year-old and had been a member of Buffalo Hill Golf Club since he was 5.

“He was a 7 handicap when he died,” Hineman said. “That’s pretty good for a high-schooler.”

Ian enjoyed his time in class as well. Even when a subject didn’t come naturally to him, he worked hard to learn, Hineman said.

“I felt he struggled with math, but he still just pounded his way through it,” he said. “When I would see his grades and see all A’s and B’s, [I would think] wow, that’s my kid. I was so happy.”

As a junior, Ian already was planning for college. While his older brother, Benjamin, worked with their dad at Oriental Secrets, the family’s rug store in Whitefish, “Ian, he didn’t want to have anything to do with this place,” Hineman said.

“He had his path chosen. He wanted to go to Notre Dame or ASU.”

Hineman suspects his son would have ended up at Arizona State University. Before moving to the Flathead when Ian was 4, the family had lived in Tucson, Ariz., and still had family and friends there.

And with sunnier skies than Montana or Indiana, Arizona would have allowed Ian to golf year-round, Hineman said.

He described his son as a combination of old soul and typical teenager.

“He was just a child, but he was a young man. He was older in his head than you would think,” Hineman said. “But he still had the immaturities. That’s kind of what got him at the end.”

On that chilly December night, Ian asked his parents if he could sleep in the guest house. Weather forecasters had predicted subzero temperatures and Ian wanted to be on hand to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze and that the hot tub’s propane furnace was functioning.

“I told him what to do about the furnace for the Jacuzzi, and he said, ‘I know more about it than you do, Dad’ — which he did,” Hineman said. “But he did not know more about carbon monoxide poisoning.”

When the furnace quit working that night, Ian put insulation in the exhaust vent to keep out cold air, but he forgot to shut off the gas valve and turn off the furnace. Hineman found his son in the basement and succumbed to the carbon monoxide fumes himself shortly after calling 911.

Creston firefighters arrived within 10 minutes and were able to revive Hineman, but Ian never woke up.

One month later, Hineman gave his first speech about Ian’s Challenge before the Business and Labor Committee in Helena. He spoke before the Legislature again in March 2009, and shortly after, Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed Senate Bill 161 into law.

Hineman has continued to work for increased carbon monoxide safety ever since, but he also has maintained his connection to Ian’s class. He volunteered with the golf team last fall, and at the end of May he attended Flathead High’s senior awards night.

“Everyone that was up on that scholarship stage, they were all Ian’s friends,” Hineman said. “Those were all his friends, and he would have been on that stage also.”

That Ian would have graduated on time was never a question to Hineman. That conviction led him to ask Flathead administrators to consider awarding Ian an honorary diploma.

“Ian was a great student, and we felt that if this helped bring closure to the family then that would be the least we could do for the Hinemans,” Flathead Principal Peter Fusaro said.

It’s the first time in recent memory that the high school has awarded a posthumous diploma. The gesture means the world to Hineman.

“If this hadn’t happened, I would still probably be in a daze,” he said. “It gives so much meaning to all his schooling and to what he was all about.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.