Longtime cabinetmaker strives to 'be involved'

Ole Netteberg's heart pumps at half the pressure it should, but no one could accuse him of being halfhearted about anything.

In fact, it's the 61-year-old cabinetmaker's whole-hearted approach to life that turns people's heads.

"People say I'm the eternal optimist," a cheery Netteberg said at his Whitefish office, sharing points of interest from his 4:30 a.m. Bible study that morning. What stood out from that particular study were the words diligence, zest and zeal.

"I love that word, diligence," he said.

Netteberg had a full life - lived with much diligence, zest and zeal - when a heart valve went bad in 1997. Doctors replaced it with a valve from a 47-year-old woman.

"I'm so much more sensitive now," joked Netteberg, whose conversation is peppered with witty one-liners.

Then a virus took hold of his heart and doctors didn't expect him to live. He and his wife sold their business, Shirno Cabinets, and put his affairs in order as he got weaker and weaker.

But he didn't die.

Netteberg's doctors were able to get his heart back to half speed, and his proverbial big heart compensates for the rest.

NETTEBERG'S never-say-die attitude and work ethic were shaped at an early age in Minnesota, where he grew up in a conservative Scandinavian household under the tutelage of his father, a strict disciplinarian who worked at a grain elevator, and a mother who taught school, served as the mayor of Bethel, Minn., and was involved in nearly every organization in town.

"Be involved," she told her children.

Those words still echo in Netteberg's mind, and he heeded the advice. He spent an entire day last week with fellow Whitefish Rotary Club members building a Habitat for Humanity home.

He serves on the Whitefish Planning Board, spent a few years on the Flathead County Board of Adjustment, is past president of the Flathead Building Association and was named Affiliate of the Year of both the local and state building associations.

He's one of only two life directors of the Montana Building Association.

Netteberg wasn't a studious child per se.

"I loved school because that's where the girls were," he recalled with a laugh. "I had fun; let's just leave it at that. I never took a book home and was still in the top third of my class."

He was drawn to woodworking after high school and earned his journeyman cabinetmaker ranking in 1972. From there he started his own cabinet business. To date he has logged 41 years in the business, 38 of which he's been self-employed.

It was the lure of hunting that brought Netteberg to Montana for a monthlong trip in 1985.

"I was getting a jump-start on a midlife crisis," he quipped.

Then he met Whitefish native Shirley Birr and his fate was sealed.

"I tell people I fell in love with Shirley, the mountains and elk, in that order," he said.

Netteberg moved from Minnesota to Whitefish in 1986 and jumped into a blended family when he married Shirley.

He had two children from his first marriage and she had three grown children, but they both insisted there would be no stepchildren. His kids were hers and vice versa. When Shirley died three years ago, Netteberg remembers her dying wish: "Keep the family close."

He was married last year to Carlene Cook and she brought two more grown children and some grandchildren to the Netteberg clan. The current count is seven children, 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"Family is everything," he said. "I've been blessed 10 times over."

WHEN NETTEBERG defied death, he restarted his cabinet work by forming The Old World Cabinet Co., which now has offices in Whitefish and Tlaquepaque, Mexico.

He added the shop in Mexico eight years ago because that's where he can tap into old-style craftsmen with the skills to hand-carve ornate woodwork for the high-end market he serves.

Old World cabinets adorn many homes in the upscale Iron Horse subdivision on Big Mountain and the Homestead development west of Whitefish. He has sold cabinets across the country, too, from Florida to California.

The resort market in places like Cabo, Mexico, has dried up because of the recession, so Old World has associated with Top Shelf Cabinets in Columbia Falls and 4West Cabinetry in Kalispell to try to capture a "bigger piece of the pie," Netteberg said.

"Right now business sucks, but the rest of life is perfect," he added.

The rest of Netteberg's life, beyond his family and business, includes raising Missouri fox trotter horses for the past 15 years or so. True to form, he's been president and on the board of directors of the Big Sky Fox Trotter Association of Montana.

He also raises German shorthaired pointers and has competed in field trials since the early 1970s.

NETTEBERG is happy when he's busy, and he's busy all the time, be it hobbies, work or civic duty.

His conservative views aren't always popular when development proposals come before the Planning Board, and he admits he "butts heads with the no-growth people.

"Just because I'm progressive, I'm not going to wreck the town," he said. "I want what's best for everyone. I feel like I'm up against this tunnel vision versus the big picture."

Opposing viewpoints aren't enough to stymie Netteberg, though.

When he needs more edification for his civic involvement, he whips out one of his favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt: "Every man owes part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere."

Or as his mother so succinctly put it: "Be involved."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.