LETTER: Remembering Pete Darling's contributions

Pete Darling’s funeral in Columbia Falls was Feb. 9. Pete touched the lives of hundreds of low income youth back in the 1970s and early 1980s through his employment with the U.S. Forest Service.

The Blackfeet Tribe, Montana State Job Service and later the Community Action Program needed Neighborhood Youth Corps (and later Summer Program for Economically Disadvantaged Youth) job sites for low-income youth where they could be exposed to different occupations and yet contribute to the community and make a difference. Pete spearheaded these job sites for crews of up to 25 or more on almost all the Forest Service districts in Flathead National Forest. There was even a residential camp at Spotted Bear where the youths stayed in dorms.

The teenagers worked on trails, rolled up old telephone wire, cleaned out culverts but mainly they learned about all the different occupations available in the forest, professional and non-professional. Many went on to college, completed forestry degrees and returned to work for the same district office in which they started as teenagers. Others successfully sought out work on other forests out of state.

These young people went on to marry and raise families while earning good wages with fringe benefits many times due to interests cultivated on these summer jobs arranged by Pete Darling. Most of them never met Pete and my guess is that most never knew he was responsible for their summer jobs.

To the best of my knowledge, Pete never received any recognition from the USFS Supervisor’s Office, Blackfeet Tribe, Montana Job Service or the Community Action Program. Every low income young person aged 16 through 22 in the Flathead Valley that we could find had a job for the summer in large part due to the efforts of Pete Darling. —Norm Johnson, Polson