James Henry Mahnke, 83

Dr. James Henry Mahnke passed away on Aug. 2, 2016, at his home in Whitefish.

He was born on March 26, 1933 (the worst month of the Great Depression, as he often noted), in Wenachee, Washington, the second child of Henry and Laverne (Reimer) Mahnke. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High school in Spokane and headed east for college. While at Harvard he learned to love coq au vin while working at a French restaurant, decided to pursue a medical career because he didn’t think he was smart enough to be a historian, and met Carol Manning, the woman who would become the mother of his children, Janet and Jennifer.

He returned to Seattle to attend medical school at the University of Washington. His residence was near the faculty parking lot, and when he found out the Jaguar he admired belonged to the professor of neurosurgery he decided to become a neurosurgeon himself.

Jim taught at the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond and the Yale University School of Medicine (where he convinced William Sloan Coffin to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle) before joining the neurosurgery faculty at the University of California, Irvine. At UC Irvine he received the Golden Apple award presented by the students to a favorite professor for excellence in teaching and became the dean of students.

He was in private practice in Durango, Colorado, before moving to Kalispell in March 1989. A ward secretary at the time remembers receiving a call from administration to advise her that “if she saw someone in the hall who looked like he didn’t belong he is one of ours.” She said she looked up, saw a tall man in Levis and cowboy boots with a large brass belt buckle and thought “that must be him.” Jim didn’t fit the physical stereotype for a neurosurgeon or the stereotype of aloof neurosurgeons with poor bedside manner. He was warm, compassionate and beloved by his patients. He performed his last operation in Kalispell in the spring of 1997.

Jim was a Renaissance man who could talk to anybody about anything. He loved Porsches and VWs, guns and hunting, maps, politics, gardening, raising chickens and telling stories.

He was the embodiment of the physicians creed to “do no harm,” and he took it one step further — make things better.

He gave Ceasar Chavez a place to stay when Chavez led a march across California to obtain better working conditions for field laborers.

He left a gun show to carry the flag at a demonstration urging “No Iraq War.”

He ran for office — twice — knowing that the “D” behind his name almost certainly meant defeat in the Flathead.

He served on church boards, hospital boards, and most recently the AERO (Alternative Energy Resource Organization) board.

He attended the national conferences of ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil) and three times drove to Kansas to attend the Prairie Festival put on by the Land Institute, an organization working to develop perennial wheat, rice and sorghum.

He built a kayak so he could have an easier way to get an elk out of the CMR national wildlife refuge.

He made a mean spaghetti sauce, a fabulous salad, and was proud to have won the grand prize at a pie baking contest.

He treated everyone he met with dignity and respect, always making sure he knew their first and last names, remembering it when he saw them again, and asking for their card. And every phone conversation included the question, “Anything I can do for you?”

Jim is survived by his wife, Diane; his daughters and their spouses Janet and Jeff Zorek, and Jennifer and Steve Pavlet; his grandchildren, Sam and Sophia Zorek, and Alexander and Ethan Pavlet; his sister, Darlene Simpson-Brown; his brother and his spouse, Mark and Jessica Mahnke; six nieces and nephews and 10 great-nieces and -nephews, all of whom have a tremendous void in their hearts.

To honor his memory, buy local, treat everyone with respect, tell a joke, “seek peace, do justice, build community,” and check your tire pressure.

There will be a celebration of Jim’s remarkable life at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20, at the Museum at Central School.

To send a note of condolence to the family, please visit www.buffalohillfh.com. Buffalo Hill Funeral Home is caring for the family.