Gregory Scott Thurston

Gregory Scott Thurston passed away Dec. 11, 2021, from cancer.

He was born June 30, 1949 in Champaign, Illinois. His parents moved to Boulder, Colorado, when he was in the second grade and he grew up along the foothills of the Rockies. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a BA in history and accumulated numerous photographic credits at local colleges after that; the basis for a lifelong pursuit of photography. He worked in various construction capacities during Denver's boom and expansion in the ’70s. Greg traveled some, moving to Maine, but soon returned to the West. He progressed into surveying, accumulating credits at North Idaho College and Flathead Valley Community College and worked in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and primarily Montana, putting down roots there in 1981. Greg was a licensed and registered Montana land surveyor. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Federal Highway Administration, private engineers and surveyors, and closed his career as the city surveyor of Kalispell. After his career as a surveyor, Greg was able to enjoy many travel adventures from Europe to the Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia, South America, and Canada. He was home long enough to research his next adventure, tell some travel stories, work on his photography projects, and then embark on his next adventure.

Greg was preceded in death by his parents, Kenneth and Vivian.

He is survived by his former wife, Norma, and their daughters, Alison and Annie (along with her husband Matt and twin grandsons Isaac and Markus), his sister Diane, and his companion and friend Susan.

A memorial service will be held for family and friends at Lone Pine State Park Community Center in Kalispell on Saturday, July 9 from 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Our family humbly requests that in lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to the Hockaday Museum of Art, Northwest Montana History Museum, ImagineIf Library Foundation, and Glacier National Park Conservancy.