Final resting place: Family of late political scientist bring his ashes back home to Kalispell

Peter Odegard’s ashes have been passed between family members since his death in 1966. But the notable political scientist and U.S. Treasury advisor made a homecoming recently after an unlikely journey by his granddaughter.  

Odegard served as the president of Reed College in Portland in 1945, and taught at Williams College, Ohio State University and Amherst College before moving to Washington, D.C. during World War II, where he served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury. His duties included authoring the blueprint for the War Bond sales program, according to Reed College’s website.  

In 1948 he became the chair of the political science department at the University of California Berkeley. He continued to teach and work there until 1965. When he retired, UC Berkeley established the Peter H. Odegard Memorial Award in Political Science. 

According to his obituary in the Daily Inter Lake, he authored many books and papers on political science and was selected to give the first nationally televised course on American government which aired on NBC in 1961.   

Odegard died in Berkeley after a short illness in 1966 and was survived by his wife and two sons, who remained in California.  

But Odegard’s story began in Flathead County where he grew up in a large family of Norwegian immigrants. His great-niece Carol Duffner remembers him as warm and engaging.  

“I remember him, and he would always seek us kids out — even if there was a room full of adults. He would want to know what we were taking in school and how we were doing ... he was always very attentive and very nice. So I definitely remember, and my dad adored him,” Carol said.  

She said Odegard’s parents moved to Kalispell in 1892 from South Dakota and had 10 children, mostly sons. While his oldest sister Minnie decided to stay in Kalispell, the rest of the family moved to Seattle. They bought a huge house near the University of Washington, living in the basement and renting out the rooms above to students. Duffner said the money made from this paid for all the boys to attend college. 

“I love that story, too. It's just pretty amazing. I think five of the boys, none of the girls, went there ... One became a pharmacist, one became a surgeon. One was Peter, who you know became a political scientist and everything,” Carol said.  

Because their family was so large, descendants are spread out everywhere, Carol said. And when her daughter attended college in Oregon, she was already in the habit of looking for Odegards throughout the Northwest. This led her to meet Erika Odegard, Peter’s granddaughter, who was born significantly later than her older brothers. She kept up with her distant relative by sending Christmas cards and occasionally reaching out. But it wasn’t until she ended up with some of Odegard’s books that she asked if Erika could come pick them up.  

“They stopped here for breakfast and we caught up. That's how it all started, I'd never heard of a funeral for Peter, so I asked her and she didn't know,” Carol said. “She called her brother and he said, ‘oh, his ashes are in my attic.’ So, it just started me on a whirlwind. I thought, ‘I don't think he belongs there, I think he belongs back in Kalispell.’” 

This is where serendipity comes in, according to Erika and her husband Ike. The couple were already planning on coming to Whitefish for a family reunion a few months later (unrelated to the Odegards). When Carol posed the idea of bringing Odegard home, they said they’d be able to make it work. So, they picked up his ashes in Mt. Shasta where Erika’s brother lives and made their way back to the Flathead Valley. 

“We were in Sydney, Australia last week, so it’s a lot of stuff in a row. But, I mean, it's super cool ... I hope somebody does this for me someday,” Ike said.  

Odegard’s ashes, sealed in a metal box, were buried beside his sister Minnie in Conrad Memorial Cemetery. When Erika and Ike arrived for the burial, they began parsing through a memory book they had picked up from her brother’s attic, including a family history and old photographs.  

Erika said the experience made her feel closer to her grandfather. 

“I never got to meet grandpa. He died before I was born, but I got to know grandma. I was five or eight when she died. But, you know, she was fun and cool,” Erika said. 

It’s another chapter in Odegard’s storied life, and for Carol, it was a way to honor her great-uncle who was adored by many and “made a positive impact everywhere he went.”  

"He tried to do a lot of good things for the campus at Reed College and got new buildings done. He was assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury for a while ... and he was a Lutheran, but he got to go to the Vatican and have an audience with the Pope,” she said, rattling through more of his accolades. 

The whole affair was very emotional for her. She had not seen Erika since she was a teenager, so working together to bring Odegard home brought her a lot of resolve.   

“I asked a lot of questions. Sometimes I'm annoying, but I just had never heard my dad talk about a funeral for Peter. So that's why I was so interested,” Carol said. “I love that it's full circle. And I thought all along that he belongs back there with all the history, and I just didn't want his ashes spread somewhere or forgotten. Thank goodness they were in his attic.”  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.

    Ike Odegard points to an old photo of the Odegards in a family memory book on Thursday, Sept. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    A copper box containing the cremated remains of Peter Odegard during an interment of ashes ceremony at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, Sept. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Ike Odegard pages through a family memory book on Thursday, Sept. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Ike Odegard holds a family photo showing Peter Odegard as a young child on Thursday, Sept. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
  

    Pete Odegard, in the light-colored suit on the left, poses with his brothers outside their family home in Seattle, where they moved to get a college education. (photo provided)