Analyst

Sixty Five years together; The beauty of old fashioned loyalty.

Richard Glenn Gerhart (7/27/1931 – 5/26/2024) and Alida Irene nee Davison  (4/25/37 – 12/4/2021.)

Charlie Russell knew Montana like our parents did. His paintings are how I see them now.

His children announce the death of their father and decorated Korean War Veteran, Richard (Dick) Gerhart. He had most recently been in care at the SW Montana Veterans Home in Butte. Dad was preceded in passing by his wife and our mother, Alida in 2021. Alida was born to Reno Fay and Ida Davison of Highwood, where Fay was a merchant and postmaster into the 1970s. Dick was born on the family “Home” ranch near Raynesford, to William and Amy Gerhart.

Dick grew up punching cows and attended high school in Belt. He was drafted into the Army in 1952, served in Korea and was discharged with honor in 1953. For his service he was decorated with a Bronze Star, three Service Stars and a Purple Heart. Alida graduated from Highwood high school in 1955 and moved to Great Falls to study nursing. She dated Dad and they were married on June 2nd, 1956. The couple relocated to Lewistown where Dad had work building missile silos. In 1960 they bought a home in Great Falls, and later moved to Helena in 1972.

Mom and Dad enjoyed many familiar aspects of Montana native life together, including fly fishing and hunting – which was rare for women in the 1950s. In the 1960s they kept a family cabin on Landers Fork of the Little Blackfoot River near Lincoln where we kids and our cousins “ran wild.” In Helena from the 1970s, we spent time fishing and water skiing on the lakes. Decades thereafter, were punctuated with graduations, weddings, and grandchildren.

“Leadfoot” Alida was a notoriously fast driver and a renowned cook famed for matrimony bars. She canned lake trout, milled her own flour and picked gallons of chokecherries for syrup. Mom’s summer BBQs were crowded. After his retirement from working for the State, Dick spent time in Alaska and Arizona. In the 2000s he lived aboard his boat the “Alibi” in Puget Sound, motoring to ports along the Inside Passage. “I just follow the ferries,” he told us, disregarding our concern over his solo ventures.

From the establishment of the Brigman Coulee ranch in 1873, six generations of Gerharts have made Montana their home. Dick and Alida are survived by their married children. David (Kristin Sorensen) of Bandon, Oregon; Rodger (Amber Lindgren) of Missoula, Kamron (Scott Allen) of Belgrade and Joel (Elizabeth Maida), Helena residents. The family now includes five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. 

A Military Honors Funeral will be held for Dick at Fort Harrison in Helena on July 12th. A memorial gathering for our parents is planned for July 13th in Helena.

Charlie seems to be saying “Welcome home… all your friends that went before? Are happy to see ‘ya!”

For the backstory on why we call Pops “Cow Puncher?”

Ride on Mom and Dad!!