Richard LaMonte Gaertner, 91
Richard LaMonte Gaertner, 91
Richard LaMonte Gaertner, 91, died Thursday, July 26, 2012, while in comfort care with loving staff at the Montana State Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.
Born Aug. 24, 1920, as youngest in a family of six children for Montgomery and Minnie (Dineen) Gaertner in Eureka, Richard resided the majority of his life in the state he loved dearly. Having graduated from Eureka High School Class of 1939, Richard worked on the Great Northern Railroad before World War II called him to enlist and to serve in the Navy off Florida's coast and near Brazil.
Post-war found telegraphy jobs on the railroad fitted well with his radio experience in the Navy. Richard met his wife and fellow telegrapher, Edith Becquart, in those early post-war years. After their marriage, they lived in Stryker, where their only child, Susan Kay, was born in 1948. An ideal family outing included Richard teaching Susan to fly fish (or untangling her line) while Edith picked huckleberries nearby. A move to Whitefish kept Richard involved in telegraphy, operator and agent positions, on the Burlington Northern until his retirement in 1981.
His love of people marked Richard as a wonderful teacher for new railroad telegraphers and for aspiring hunters and fishermen alike. His students were fellow employees, grandchildren, neighborhood kids and friends. He loved the outdoors and what Northwestern Montana offered for lifestyle. And he loved to tell stories. Many of us left behind believe we never did hear all of his tales; a bit of the Irish from his mother!
Cherishing his memory as they celebrate his life are his loving wife, Edith Gaertner of Spokane; his only daughter, Susan, and son-in-law, Al Geissler, of White Rock, British Columbia; grandson, Ian Geissler, wife Olga, and great-granddaughters, Natasha and Allyson of Clarksville, Tenn.; granddaughter, Arianna and husband Peter Neimanis of Canberra, Australia, with great-grandsons, Seamus, Owen and Daniel; grandson, Jeffrey Geissler and fiancée Priscilla Valstar of St. Catherines, Ontario, with children, Kiera, Sienna and Liam; and grandson, Daniel Geissler and fiancée Adria Lovic of Burnaby, British Columbia. They are joined in remembrance of Richard by many nieces, nephews, family and friends across Washington, Idaho and Montana.
An Irish blessing for Richard: “May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm on your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
A Funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 31, at St. Charles Catholic Church in Whitefish, followed by a private interment at 1 p.m. at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell.
Arrangements are entrusted to Austin Funeral Home. You are invited to go to www.austinfh.com to offer condolences, share memories and view Richard's tribute wall.