Inter Lake outdoors writer Rick Funk dies

Longtime Daily Inter Lake outdoors writer Rick Funk, 66, died Monday at Brendan House in Kalispell following a lengthy illness. He had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and had undergone treatment.

Funk wrote his “Tattered Tales” column and other feature stories for the Inter Lake for more than a decade. Earlier this year he published “Tom’s Tattered Tales,” a 42-chapter compilation of his writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

“Rick loved to share a good story, and he knew plenty of them,” said former Inter Lake Managing Editor Frank Miele. “What was surprising was that most of them were out of his own rather unassuming life. He could elevate the most ordinary moments into high drama — or comedy — especially if it involved a bullet or a fishhook.

“He was a gentleman scholar who had a vast store of practical knowledge about the world around him that never ceased to amaze me,” Miele said. “As a native-born resident of Kalispell, he was a conduit of not just knowledge but also wisdom from our frontier roots. He loved the outdoors as much as anyone I have ever known, and was passionate about sharing that love with his own children and grandchildren or with anyone else who got within earshot.”

Funk was one of three children born to Thomas Willard Funk and Phyllis Miller Funk. One of his jobs early on in life was working at the railroad tie plant in Somers with his father.

Funk graduated from Flathead High School in 1971, and served in the U.S. Air Force in 1975 and 1976. He guarded Strategic Air Command aircraft armed with nuclear weapons at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, according to a profile about Funk written by former Inter Lake staffer Duncan Adams in May this year.

He graduated from the University of Montana in 1989, and became a school teacher that same year, spending the majority of his career at Kila School, teaching English and drama and working as a librarian. He retired in 2007.

Paul Nockleby, a friend and high school classmate who edited and helped publish Funk’s “Tom’s Tattered Tales,” said he became close friends with Funk after their 40th class reunion in 2011.

“Rick liked to talk, and he liked to tell stories to receptive audiences,” Nockleby said. “Over the past six years Rick and I would get together for coffee or lunch on our regular trips to the Flathead, and we would call each other on the phone on a regular basis over the last several years.

“I enjoyed those visits with Rick. He was a natural storyteller,” he said.

Nockleby recalled Funk’s love of the outdoors. “Every season since he was knee-high he was on the front-line with the hunters and on the banks of area rivers and lakes.,” he said.

“Rick could describe situations and experiences so vividly with such color and detail that I could easily imagine them,” Nockleby continued. “Some of those stories could be quite hilarious; all of them were told with flashes of wit. Sometimes he would remind me of Will Rogers, sometimes of Mark Twain.”

Through the years, Miele said he heard from many Inter Lake readers who were touched by his self-deprecating humor and humility.

“He made us laugh and also taught us to savor the small miracles that make life worth living,” Miele said.

Nockleby said Funk was often “over-generous” with his time” and modest in accepting reimbursement and thanks.

“That is what I would describe as his ‘agape’ — his ‘self-giving love.’ That is what you felt when you were around Rick for any length of time. He was generous in that way -- and I think he was similarly generous to everyone in his path or acquaintance,” Nockleby said.

“I will miss Rick, and will take out his Christmas story (near the end of Funk’s book) and remember the talent and sensitivity he shared with us in his writing,” Nockleby added.

Among Funk’s survivors are his wife Glenda, four children, two step-children and grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 28, at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home with a viewing from 10 to 11 a.m. Graveside services with military honors will begin at 12:30 p.m. at Fairview Cemetery. A reception will follow at the funeral home.

News Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.