Melvin 'Dee' Strickler, 83

Melvin “Dee” Strickler, 83, died at his home in Columbia Falls on March 12, 2011.

He was born March 29. 1927, in Walla Walla, Wash., to Glenn and Elba Conley Strickler. His father was a wholesale distributor for Standard Oil and his mother, a homemaker. He attended schools in Milton-Freewater, Ore. Dee loved hiking in the outdoors and fished most of the length of the Walla Walla River as a boy. He lettered in football, basketball, and track at McLoughlin Union High School for three years. He spent his senior year in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II, stationed on Oahu, Hawaii.

In 1950, he graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry, where he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Two years later he was granted a Master of Science degree in wood utilization from Syracuse University.

He was married to Claire Church in Syracuse, N.Y., on June 1, 1953. His first job out of college was at Cascades Plywood in Lebanon, Ore., working in quality control. In 1954, he and Claire moved to Clarkston, Wash., to help on his dad's fruit ranch on the Snake River. They also raised purebred Suffolk sheep. Their two older children, Jack and Zoe, were born in Clarkston.

When the ranch was scheduled to be flooded by a dam on the river, they moved to Pullman, Wash., where he was a member of the faculty at Washington State in the Division of Industrial Research, College of Engineering for 19 years. He was involved in research that included particleboard, finger jointing, trusses and glu-lam beams. During that time he authored 20 articles in professional publications and was awarded two patents. In 1972 he earned the L.J. Markwardt Award for Wood Engineering Research from the Forest Products Research Society for “distinguished contribution to the knowledge of wood as an engineering material and enhanced utilization efficiency of this renewable resource.” He took a year's absence from WSU to study for his Doctorate of  Forestry degree at Duke University, which was awarded in 1967. He rose to the rank of full professor of materials science at WSU.

Their youngest son, Walt, was born in Pullman, Wash. Dee was active in Boy Scouts with his two sons. He took Scouts on long hikes, including a 100-mile hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He also took church youth groups on backpacking trips with Claire, and the family enjoyed backpacking together. He hunted and hiked many miles in the Blue Mountains, where he started photographing wildflowers.

In 1976, the Stricklers moved to Whitefish to establish Strickler-Taylor Lumber Company with Keith Taylor, who had built a finger-jointing machine using one of Dee’s patents. In 1978 their company entered “The World's Longest Board” in the Whitefish Winter Carnival Parade. A 2 by 6 measuring over 500 feet in length was carried by dozens of Whitefish Junior and Senior High School students. They had hoped to be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records, but were rejected because there was no such category.

When their business closed in the recession of 1980, Dee turned his hobby of many years, photographing wildflowers, into a new profession. He wrote and published five books: “Prairie Wildflowers,” “Forest Wildflowers,” “Alpine Wildflowers,” “Wayside Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest” and “Northwest Penstemons.” All but the latter have gone into several editions and all are still in print.

Dee was a member of the American Penstemon Society, the Montana Native Plant Society, and a former board member of the Glacier Natural History Association. He was a member of the first Presbyterian Church of Whitefish, an ordained elder and the church's “Dishwashing Deacon.” He loved to sing and was a faithful tenor in the church choir. In 1982, he designed and oversaw the building of an addition to the church.

Possessing a lifelong passion for game hunting, Dee managed to go into the field at age 82 with his son. He also loved gardening, laboring over a vegetable garden and three wildflower gardens.

Dee was preceded in death by his parents, and his older brother Bob.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Claire; and their son Jack, his wife Diana, and grandson Glenn, of Kalispell; son, Walt, of Boulder, Colo.; daughter Zoe, husband George Gibson, and granddaughter Chloe, of Storrs, Conn.; and a foster son, Sanjay Narasimhalu, and family of Katy, Texas.

The celebration of Dee’s life will be held  11 a.m. on Saturday, March 19, at the First Presbyterian Church, Whitefish, with the Rev. Dan Davis officiating, followed by a lunch in the church's Fellowship Hall.

The family suggests donations in lieu of flowers to the North Valley Food Bank, 311 E. First Street, Whitefish, MT 59937; or the Glacier Presbytery Camp and Conference Center, P.O. Box 384, Lakeside, MT 59922.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home is caring for Dee’s family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and view Dee’s tribute wall.