Van Kirke Nelson, 83

Dr. Van Kirke Nelson passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, April 18, 2015, surrounded by his family.

In April, 53 years ago, Kirke, Helen, two toddlers and an infant drove into the Flathead Valley in a 1957 Borgward station wagon and an old Pabst Blue Ribbon beer truck with $500 and a few possessions, and took up temporary residence in the Blue and White Motel to begin their new life. It wasn't long until they moved into a cozy two bedroom house near Lawrence Park and Kirke opened his practice as the first ob-gyn specialist in the Flathead Valley. He was soon busy delivering babies and helping Helen raise their family who had grown to five rambunctious towheads. 

Van Kirke Nelson was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on June 18, 1931, the only child of Harold and Sara (Van BusKirk) Nelson. They moved to Los Angeles where, shortly after, his mother died of tuberculosis. Harold was remarried to Winifred, Kirke’s stepmother, several years later.

After high school, Kirke went on to East Los Angeles Junior College, then to the University of Southern California where he completed his bachelor's degree and obtained his medical degree. During his senior year in medical school he met his sweetheart, Helen, a Canadian nurse working at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. Kirke and Helen were married on Feb. 21, 1958, in Santa Barbara, California. Before setting up a practice in Kalispell at the Buffalo Block in 1962, he worked as the emergency doctor for the Pasadena Police Department and subsequently for the Kalispell Hospital.

Over the course of his medical career, he performed countless surgical operations and delivered approximately 7,500 babies. With his family, he volunteered for Project Hope on the Navajo Reservation in 1971. Kirke served on the board of the Montana Medical Association and the Board of Medical Examiners for many years. 

Kirke loved the Montana outdoors. He was an inveterate bird hunter, heading to the hospital many fall mornings in his hunting garb in order to bag a few ducks, geese or pheasants at first light before work, or hunting on the weekends with his children. During the winter, you could find him skiing with his family, his pager tucked in his jacket.

Kirke was an entrepreneur at heart — a dreamer and a doer. Whether it involved dredging an old tour boat off the bottom of the lake and refurbishing it as the Far West, building the Kalispell Medical Arts building, working to establish the ALERT helicopter as part of the Flathead Valley's medical mission, helping found the Outpatient Surgical Center, opening Glacier Gallery or putting on community art shows with the Hockaday Museum of Art, Kirke always had an idea up his sleeve and a way to put it in motion. Later in life, he found a great interest in sitting on the Glacier Bank board and serving on the Kalispell Regional Hospital board as well.

When Kirke wasn't practicing medicine, he was pursuing his other great passion — collecting Western art, artifacts and what he liked to call “keen things.” He began collecting while still in medical school and it became a family affair with dinner conversations and family vacations often centered around the history, beauty or cultural significance of a new discovery and wall space. He was active in the work of the Montana Historical Society and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. He was a true friend of artists and potters as well. 

Kirke lived his faith in a gentle and sure way. He felt God's presence in his life and tried to live each day showing Christ's love and kindness to others. Through the years, Kirke has been recognized for his many accomplishments and contributions to the community but his true humanity was witnessed in his common, everyday interactions with others. At any given moment, he had a way of making you feel like you were the most important person in the world to him because you were.  All of us are the recipients of his thoughtfulness, godliness, intelligence and gentleness. Everyone who knew him has a story, whether of a simple act of kindness, of good humor, or of generosity. These are the stories he would like us to share with each other and remember him by.

He was his wife’s and children's biggest fan and was unwavering in his support and prayers for their many adventures. He will be forever remembered by his wife, Helen, and their five children and their families, Greg Nelson and wife Gina, and children, Vale, Forest, and Echo and husband Brian; Julie Mitchell and husband Doug, and children, Garrett and Andrew; Kathy Nelson and husband Chris Sauvé, and children, Emma and Julia; Nancy Maxwell and children, Sierra, Jandi and Hanna; and Doug Nelson and wife Karen, and children, Michelle, Jessica, Weston, Rachel and Lauren.  

In lieu of flowers, donations in Kirke’s memory can be made to any of the following organizations which were dear to his heart: ALERT, the Flathead Food Bank, the Hockaday Museum of Art, Flathead Valley Community College Nursing, or Kidsports.

Friends and family are invited to attend a memorial reception from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, at the Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp south of Lakeside on Lutheran Camp Road. Casual, outdoor attire. Parking is limited so please try to carpool.