William "Bill" R. Christensen

William (Bill) Robert Christensen passed away Saturday, June 23, at the Granite County Medical Center in Philipsburg, MT. Bill was born April 30, 1938 to Robert and Mary Helen Christensen, in the Parks house in Parkerville (corner of South and Main); the same house his mother was born in (1918); the house had been originally built in Granite, but later disassembled and reassembled in Parkerville. He was raised on one of the family ranches on the Ross' Fork of Rock Creek, and also spent time on the William Carey ranch on the East Fork of Rock Creek and the Sarch Carey ranch on Trout Creek. He attended a country school on the Middle Fork of Rock Creek until the fifth grade, when he then went to Philipsburg for school, and later graduated from Granite High School in 1956. While growing up on the Ross' Fork, he early on did his homework by kerosene lantern prior to having electricity out there and bathed in water heated on the stove. He hayed with horses and tractors as a teenager and recalled two of his uncles (Oswald "Ossie" Christensen and Lawrence Carey) returning home from World War II. Bill was quite a mechanic. He and his friend Don Dee Kennedy had a '31 Chevy; they welded the spider gears in the rear end, cut off the fenders and the roof, split the exhaust manifold for a dual exhaust, and put in a 4-speed truck transmission. They used that modified car to drive around, including into Medicine Lake. Bill was also an avid hunter and shooter and liked to fish. He and his dad packed with horses into the Pintlars in 1962 hunting mountain goats, and he shot one with a .220 Wilson Arrow built on a 98 Mauser action; at the time, the local gunsmith Bill Hobaugh thought the .220 Wilson Arrow would become a mainstream cartridge, and the .220 Swift would remain a wildcat. In 1956 his great uncle Philip Sarsfield Carey (Sarch to family) suffered a stroke, and right after graduating high school, Bill took over running that ranch on Trout Creek, which he worked on for essentially the remaining 62 years of his life. When he took it over, much of it was still unfenced, and over the next several decades, he steadily put in improvements in fencing and ditches, making it a more productive ranch. Bill lived some at the Ross' Fork, some at Sarch's cabin, and even in the Gorman cabin (an old homestead on the ranch), until 1970 when he married. He did not have a shop but worked on machinery in a lean-to built onto an old granary, but mostly out in the weather. He still helped with the other ranches as well, particularly the Carey ranch on the East Fork, helping his uncle Woodrow Carey. Bill married the love of his life, Sharon Rose LeFevre, on January 2, 1970. She was teaching school in Missoula, and after that year was up, moved out to the ranch. They moved into a 60-foot single wide trailer house, where they raised three sons. In 1986, they built a new house on the hill above the trailer; and their boys each got their own bedroom! Bill was an incredibly hard worker. The ranch tractors and trucks were old and worn out and required constant repair. He kept up on fixing the beaver slide stacker, and did the hardest job, stacking (literally pitching hay on the stack, which required not only pitching the hay, but constantly climbing up and down the beaver slide) because he wanted to be sure it was done right. He did this until he finally got a bailer in 1996, at the age of 58. When irrigating, he would walk to the Big Trout meadow, then to the Pool Corner, then over to the Little Trout meadow, twice a day, to spread water by flood irrigating. He fixed fence also mostly on foot, carrying his hammer, axe, nail bucket, wire stretchers or come along, and barbwire; both on the ranch and the Forest Service grazing allotment; this was a near a constant job with the elk always wrecking the fences. While he was a good cowboy, he had little liking of or patience with horses, preferring to chase cattle with a pickup, motorbike, or even on foot when he could. He was a pretty good vet, sewing up prolapsed uteruses with leather thongs, doctoring sick calves, and pulling stuck ones. In addition to working on the ranch, he also worked as a bartender at the Silver Tavern, at the Flint Valley Forest Products sawmill on the green chain, did some construction work in Anaconda; and logged intermittently for years. Bill was a wonderful father; he and his wife Sharon raising their three boys on the ranch. He took his kids with him as soon as they were old enough to keep up; but kept a strict rule that they would not be put to heavy work or on machinery until they were at least 12 years old, unlike how he grew up. His boys learned how to ranch, hunt, and fish from him. He imprinted on his sons his work ethic, and his disdain of lazy people and thieves. Bill was also a quiet philanthropist in his own way, loaning money from time to time (sometimes a month's pay or more, despite usually being broke himself) to people in need; sometimes he got paid back, sometimes he didn't, but he kept pretty quiet about who he leant money to and how much. He was an avid reader, particularly subjects relating to science. Bill suffered a series of medical problems over the last several years, and his son Joel took over the ranch and by his unstinting efforts, kept Bill living on the ranch as long as possible, up until shortly before he died. Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Mary Helen (Carey) Christensen and Robert Louis Christensen, and his eldest son Nathaniel (Nathan or Nate) Christensen. He is survived by his wife, Sharon Christensen, sons Joel Christensen and Josh Christensen, daughter in law Sarah (Horrell) Christensen, grandsons Rasmus and Rye Christensen, sisters Helen (Bob) Loren and Marylin (Albert) Silva, brothers Steve (Ginger) Christensen and Jim (Jan) Christensen, cousin Will Carey, and several other cousins and nieces and nephews. Viewing will commence at 9:30 a.m., and a funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 30, 2018 at the KT Riddle Funeral Home Chapel in Philipsburg; internment will follow in the P-burg cemetery. A reception is being planned for after the funeral.

Visitation

JUN 30. 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM (MDT)

Riddle Funeral Chapel Philipsburg, MT 59858

Funeral Service

JUN 30. 10:30 AM (MDT)

Riddle Funeral Chapel Philipsburg, MT 59858