Robert 'Bob' Gilliland, 73

Robert “Bob” Gilliland, 73, passed away Tuesday, June 2, 2015, at his home in Grand Prairie, Texas, surrounded by family. Bob had spent the last few years of his life fighting a dual diagnosis of ALS and Pick’s disease.

He and his twin sister, Barbara, were born Feb. 24, 1942, to Claude and Elizabeth McKeen Gilliland in Whitefish.

Bob graduated from Whitefish High School in 1960. He went on to college in Havre and graduated from the University of Montana in 1966. Bob also served in the Montana National Guard. He taught school in Browning and Eureka but then went on to work at Plum Creek Lumber in 1973 for the remainder of his career. Bob was an avid fisherman and a Montana man through and through.

He taught his daughters, Mary, Kristina and Kimberly the love of woodworking and spent hours with them in his wood shop. He loved huckleberry picking with his whole family and taught everyone the cardinal rule of eating the huckleberries which were picked with the right hand and bucketing the ones picked with the left.

Bob met his wife, Dana Adams Gilliland, in 1965 while both were working at the Montana Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. They were married Oct. 2, 1965, in Whitefish. For the next 50 years Bob enjoyed watching his children and then his grandchildren grow up. He enjoyed traveling, camping and playing pinochle with close friends.

He is survived by his wife, Dana; daughters, Mary and Steve Balsley of Vienna, Austria, Kristina Gilliland of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Kimberly and Ricardo Villarreal of Grand Prairie; grandchildren, Tyler, Raelynn, Alexander, Bryce, Ricardo and Isaiah; siblings, Barbara and Dennis Olsen, and Edward and Nancy Gilliland; and an aunt, Mary Ellen McKeen Beck, of Arlee.

A memorial service is being arranged to take place during the summer in Whitefish.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Steinway Fund for Whitefish High School, ALS or a charity of your choice.