Tireless promoter dies at age 72

Gary Elliott, a prominent Whitefish businessman for decades who operated some of the resort town’s most memorable eateries, died Sunday of cancer. He was 72.

Elliott helped shape the Whitefish community in a variety of ways, from chairing the committee that drafted the city’s first comprehensive zoning laws to serving as president of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club.

He was a tireless promoter of Whitefish with an entrepreneurial spirit in his many business endeavors.

“Gary was a remarkable man,” said Turner Askew, a former business partner with Elliott in the 1990s. “Most people don’t have a clue all the things he was involved with in Whitefish. He didn’t brag about the things he’d done.”

Elliott came to the Flathead Valley from California in 1964 when Liberty Loan Corp. transferred him to Kalispell to offer interest-free loans to flood victims. During that year he met and married Bev, his wife of 48 years, and they headed back to California, returning to the Flathead for good in 1967 with their young son, David.

Elliott’s business interests gravitated toward the food business.

He worked for a food warehouse not long after moving here. In 1971 he and Bev started The Place for Steak in Whitefish. That evolved into The Place, a casual restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue the Elliotts built on a shoestring, trading materials or services for meal tabs and using beams from the old Great Northern ice house in the new restaurant.

While the couple was running The Place, Elliott also leased the Bierstube on Big Mountain and operated that popular eatery for 24 years.

During a 2001 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Elliott paused to marvel at his multifaceted life.

“I have no idea how we ever did all this at the same time,” he said, adding that “Bev has been with me on these ventures all the time.”

Bev Elliott, reflecting on her husband’s life, said their busy lives worked so well because Gary was the promoter on the front line while she was the one “behind the scenes,” doing the bookkeeping and keeping things flowing along.

Later, while they were still running the Bierstube, the Elliotts on a whim bought an old school bus for $800, dubbed it the Fool Bus and ran it between The Place and the ski resort.

They sold The Place in 1977, then bought it back in 1986 to salvage their finances after a restaurant venture at Mountain Mall called Elliott’s Diner fizzled.

Elliott kept at it, opening the first two Pizza Hut franchises in the Flathead Valley in Whitefish and Kalispell. He was a business partner with Harry Brown in two endeavors, Montana Pie Co. in Missoula and the Palace Bar in Whitefish.

“He had a creative mind,” Brown said. “His ideas were always welcome.”

Elliott and Brown also were involved in the development of the Suncrest residential subdivision in Whitefish. Elliott was a real estate broker for several years and brought the Coldwell Banker franchise to the North Valley.

In the 1990s he partnered with Askew on the proposed Great Northern business park, a project that wound up in a years-long battle with the city of Whitefish over extending water and sewer to the site near the Montana 40 and U.S. 93 intersection. When Elliott’s funds dwindled, he sold his interest in the project to Askew.

Elliott was known for standing his ground with the City Council through the years if he felt the project would better the town.

“He could be boisterous and gregarious,” Askew reflected.

One of Elliott’s biggest joys was serving as prime minister of the Whitefish Winter Carnival in 1984 for the event’s 25th anniversary.

“It’s a group that represents the best and brightest minds in our community,” he recalled in 2001 about the carnival supporters. “They all have dedication and a feeling of community.”

When Elliott was too ill to attend carnival activities this year, he was there in spirit.

“We got his picture put on a stick and we’ve been taking him around,” said Brown, the reigning carnival King Ullr. “He wanted to be involved, so we scanned pictures and sent them to him and Bev.”

The carnival royalty also knighted Elliott’s two grandsons at Muldown Elementary School last week and sent a video to the Elliotts.

Always the ambassador for Whitefish, Elliott raised money for July 4 fireworks for years, spearheaded the development of the soccer fields across from Grouse Mountain Lodge and co-founded the Whitefish Summer Games that ran for many years.

Longtime Whitefish businessman Bob DePratu, who was Elliott’s best friend, said his good friend “was the type of person who was always looking for ways to better Whitefish and promote it.

“He was the ultimate salesman, selling the attributes of the area,” DePratu said. “This is a real loss to the community. He was really a giving person and wanted to see others succeed.”

DePratu shared stories of how Elliott would seek out opportunities to help people better themselves as they and their wives traveled around the country. On a trip to Sedona, Ariz., just two and a half months ago Elliott pulled a young waitress aside and gently explained how she could increase her tips. A couple of days later the same waitress thanked Elliott, saying his advice had worked wonders.

On a trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago, Elliott persuaded DePratu to help a young salesman who had given a lackluster presentation about the condominiums he was selling.

“So we sat down with him and gave the young guy a sales lesson,” DePratu recalled. “Gary never did it in a way to make people feel bad.”

Later the young man came racing up to them, exclaiming the one-on-one session had worked — he had sold a condo.

The Whitefish Chamber took note of Elliott’s lifetime achievements, naming him Whitefish Citizen of the Year in 2011.

In 1997 the Elliotts and their son started Rocky Mountain Images in Whitefish, and Elliott had been an active part of the business until the end, his son said.

“I’ve heard from so many people,” David Elliott said. “The recurring message is this is the end of an era in Whitefish.”

In fact, those words — “end of an era” — were the last uttered by Elliott as he drifted in and out before he died, his wife said.

“I suppose he was thinking about his life,” she said.

A full obituary is printed in today’s Inter Lake on Page A9.

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