Lifelong connection with cemetery

Few people are born in a cemetery, but Bob Beck was one of them.

He drew his first breath on March 16, 1926, in the C.E. Conrad Cemetery where his father served as the cemetery sexton for 22 years. Bob’s parents, Harry and Jeanette Beck, lived in the original sexton quarters at the cemetery.

Sledding down the cemetery hill with friends was one of Bob’s favorite childhood activities. Later, when he played the trumpet in the Flathead County High School band, he often would play “Taps” for memorial services as veterans were laid to rest, or for Memorial Day ceremonies.

He worked at the cemetery, too, spending long hours with other members of the grounds crew, mowing grass with the push-style lawnmowers that preceded gasoline-powered mowers.

When Bob, a longtime Columbia Falls resident, died Feb. 2, 2014, just a month shy of his 88th birthday, he was laid to rest just a couple of hundred yards up the hill from where he was born.

This year the United Veterans of Flathead County will raise a flag at the Conrad Cemetery Veterans Memorial Monument on Memorial Day in honor of Bob Beck. The flag is a casket flag donated by his family.

The annual flag ceremony, in addition to the usual Memorial Day veterans ceremony, is dedicated to the memory and service of all Flathead County veterans, Conrad Cemetery Sexton James Korn said.

Bob joined the military as a high school senior during World War II. He finished school in 1944 and quickly headed to basic training at Amarillo, Texas. He served stateside with the Army Air Corps, stationed first in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then in Denver. While in Denver he fell gravely ill with rheumatic fever and was hospitalized for many weeks.

He was honorably discharged from military service in October 1945.

Bob’s sister, Marjorie Beck Aune, who also was born at the cemetery, likewise had an important tie to Conrad Cemetery, named for Kalispell founder Charles Conrad.

Spurred by her sorrow over losing so many classmates during World War II, she worked to establish a memorial section of the cemetery for veterans, and was directly responsible for setting aside the special veterans’ section in 1946-47.

The Beck family also had connections to the Conrad family.

When Harry Beck’s family moved from Eastern Montana to Kalispell during hard times, Harry connected with the Conrad family and worked as a chauffeur for the Conrads before they eventually put him in charge of the cemetery that bears the family name.

Marjorie, who also is buried in Conrad Cemetery, was a schoolmate of Alicia Conrad Campbell — Conrad and Alicia “Lettie” Conrad’s youngest daughter.

After the war, Bob married Joan Soller in 1949 and they raised three children.

He worked as a contract painter and designed, painted and erected signs for many Flathead businesses.

Bob also loved to restore and sell cars.

“He was very social; he loved people,” Bob’s wife, Joan, said. “He loved to hunt and fish and we spent a lot of time camping. We raised our kids in the woods almost, and consequently they still enjoy the outdoors, too.”

The Becks’ oldest son, Roger, lives in Columbia Falls, and their daughter, Lorraine Riley, lives in Whitefish. Their younger son, Gordon, lives in Olympia, Washington. There are seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

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