Leo Renfrow, 93

Happy, kind, active, strong, gentle, fun-loving and playful, Leo Edgar Renfrow, 93, passed away at Beehive Homes in Columbia Falls on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015.

He was born March 3, 1922, to Clyde Merlin Renfrow and Ruby Ruth Robison in Greeley, Iowa, where he and siblings Leila, Dean and Lyle enjoyed hard work and hearty play on the family farm. Leo once sneaked away from chores to race his pony at the country fair. With bare feet and bib-overalls, Leo took home prize money for first place, and a blue ribbon for Best of Show.

Dreams of adventure and travel drew Leo in 1941 to the United States Navy. Leo served 33 months aboard the battleship Pennsylvania in World War II then, after a short stint in Hawaii, he transferred to Ottumwa Naval Air Station in Iowa where he met and courted Ruth Milligan. The courtship included Leo driving a Jeep up the office steps and down the aisle to Ruth’s desk to deliver paperwork. Chief Renfrow had met his match. Thirty one days later, they began their 56-year marriage. 

Following the end of World War II and the birth of son Doren in 1946, Leo followed his dreams prompted by his Uncle Jack’s stories of Montana and the Robison family homestead near Ovando. Leo moved his new family to Missoula where son David was born in 1951. A love affair with Montana began. Leo spent many hours fly fishing the Bitterroot and Blackfoot Rivers around Missoula. 

Leo was called back to Navy service for the Korean War for two years aboard the tanker Taluga.

After his discharge from the Navy in 1953, Leo apprenticed and quickly became a master cabinet maker at Tapley’s in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. In 1954, Leo, Ruth, Doren and David moved to the robust Montana town of Columbia Falls where he opened Renfrow Cabinet Works. The people, the place, the work, the schools and the era were a perfect fit for his optimism and energy.

Following Ruth’s death in 2002, Leo stayed active, traveling to Russia to ride the 6,000 mile Trans-Siberian Railway. Two years later, at age 82, he was on the Great Wall of China.

Surrounded by rolled-up-sleeves people of their generation, Leo and Ruth became prolific workers and givers. Leo never said no to a civic request. Always a Wildcat Booster, when the new high school budget did not include money to add trophy cases, Leo built them anyway in late nights at his shop. When Jack King, then Chamber president said, “Leo, let’s build an arch,” Leo built the iconic “Columbia Falls” arch that spanned Nucleus until the state highway was widened. Habitat houses, Church Women United Clothes Closet, and many other projects became works of love of Leo and Ruth and many of the small-town heroes of their generation. Leo and ski buddy Loren Kreck spent many winter nights at 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. sprinkling the skating rink at Shoenberg Park’s Killer Hill so town kids had good skating ice in the mornings.

When Ruth decided Marantette Park needed a band shell, Leo contacted his friend Leonard Knutson and the three spearheaded labor, material and sweat donations to complete the Don Lawrence amphitheater. And they became acquainted with a new generation of givers.  

Leo’s cabinet and millwork business grew. Beginning in the ’60s, his company successfully completed the University of Montana high-rise dorms and Student Center contracts, then various commercial projects in Montana, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. In the early 1980s, Leo’s business entered the San Francisco Bay Area where the successor firms remain active today from Columbia Falls. Work with Leo was always fast-tempo fun. Grandchildren and town kids had an opportunity to find good summer work at Renfrow Cabinet Works.

Like today, Columbia Falls in the early ‘60s was home to a small group of active mountaineers. Together with their families they hiked up trails and off trails and climbed peaks in the Missions and Glacier Park. Leo’s many hikes with grandchildren leave cherished memories and experiences which still echo in the rocks and trees of Western Montana country. Following a difficult descent in the Missions with even their shoe laces added to extend rappel rope, mountaineer Hal Kanzler told him, “Leo, if I ever needed one guy on the end of a rope, I choose you because I know you’d never let go ’til you came with me.” 

Leo and family built a houseboat which was the vehicle of great fun on Hungry Horse Reservoir and later Echo Lake for many years. 

Wednesday ski group was planned over coffee. “Yabadabadoo tomorrow?” meant, “Are we going skiing?” Loren, Louis, Charlie, Doc, Hal … Leo’s coming with you. Yabadabadoo! 

Leo and Ruth practiced an active faith. Many area churches have fixtures donated by Leo. Several Habitat for Humanity Homes have Renfrow cabinets. In the 1980s Leo became general contractor for the Christian Churches of Montana’s Lodge at Lincoln. Leo and Ruth logged over 100 donated weekends and many weeks in this lasting endeavor. Leo volunteered on a mission trip to construct a school in Jamaica.  

Son Doren and wife Jeanne live in Kalispell. Their oldest son Tom and wife Karla are in Boise, Idaho, with Leo’s great-grandsons Tanner, Chase and Kaleb. Their son Tony and wife Holly are in Westminster, Colorado, and great-granddaughter Rachel Marie. Son Dave and Jane are in Columbia Falls where daughter Amber and husband Clark Davis live with great-grandchildren Ruby and Eddy. Their daughter Cami Renfrow lives in Salida, Colorado, with husband Trent Hickman, and great-grandchildren Mazie Jane and August Holt.

Leo’s precious dynamic sister Leila Samuelson lives in Prescott, Arizona, with her daughter Terri. 

Family and friends are rich with memories and stories of Leo. Family will have a private service this week, followed by a celebration of Leo’s life at Marantette Park this summer for everyone wishing to share stories and laughter.

Donations in memory of Leo may be made to Woodlawn Cemetery or Habitat for Humanity.

Columbia Mortuary is caring for Leo’s family.