Bill Burkhardt

MISSOULA - Bill Burkhardt, 78, died Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009, of natural causes after an extended illness in the assisted living setting in Missoula that became his home over the last several years.





He was born, January. 3, 1931, and raised in Liberty, Mo., the youngest of eight children born to Carl Alonzo and Haidee Forsyth Burkhardt.





Becoming an Eagle Scout in high school marked the beginning of his life-long interest in service to others and a love of the outdoors. He graduated from William Jewell College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Bill became student body president, participated in intercollegiate football, was a dormitory counselor and was selected for a number of honors including Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, Phi Beta Kappa, and “Outstanding Man on Campus.” He graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in divinity from Yale University Divinity School and served as the associate minister at the First Congregational Church of New Canaan, Conn., where he had served as a student minister during his senior year at Yale.





While at Yale, he met and married Kathleen “Kay” McLaughlin (also a divinity student) in 1954, with whom he raised their three daughters.





Bill and his family lived first in Hardin, where he was minister of the First Congregational Church for five years and then moved to Helena, where he became full-time pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church where he served for nearly 20 years.





Bill and Kay divorced and in 1982, he married Pat Bovington and moved to Billings where he became pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church, leading the church in a period of substantial growth, including the building of a new sanctuary. He was past president of the Billings Mental Health Association’s board of directors, and was active on the boards and committees of the Montana-Northern Wyoming Conference of the UCC until his retirement in February 1993. He received an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Rocky Mountain College in 1994.





Bill and Pat made their home in Fishtail, where they lived for 10 years near a trout stream and in sight of Bill’s beloved Beartooth Mountains, a setting they loved sharing with friends and his vast extended family that included Pat’s five children and 10 grandchildren.





After his retirement Bill and Pat had the distinct privilege of being a part of the Molt church, which has been a rich memory for both of them. Confusing twists and turns in Bill’s mind and an eventual diagnosis of frontal temporal dementia robbed Bill of the creative retirement that all who loved him would have wished upon him, but which prompted instead a move to Missoula for the medical attention he required until his death.





Bill’s church leadership was characterized as “all-welcoming,” even before that concept became an intentional church discipline. His church became “home” to countless people who were drawn to his warm and wise leadership style. He was an avid reader, a scholar and eloquent in the pulpit but, most importantly, he was a caring listener. His uncanny memory for names will very much be a part of his life legacy. Not as many people will remember him as their preacher as would more likely think of him as their friend. “Decent” was an adjective often used in reference to Bill. He was terribly proud to have been one of the 100 delegates elected to re-write Montana’s constitution (1971-72), his keenest interest being on how environmental issues needed to be framed in that new document. He was essentially wantless/needless as to worldly possessions, but it would have taken a terribly brave person to try and take away his treasured gray Land Rover that was a frequent sighting in the Helena area during his ministry (very small car, very tall minister). Bill loved poetry, particularly Robert Frost, who was in the weave of many of Bill’s sermons.





Fishing was his lifelong and favorite avocation. His casting was exquisite to watch and so finely tuned that fish hadn’t a clue that he was nearby. Countless young people enjoyed weeklong backpacking expeditions with him. Montana’s trails, rivers, mountains and streams will long remember his stride.





Excerpts from one of Bill’s poems speak to his love of nature and Montana’s outdoors: O God





Here let me ponder elk and deer ... lithe, leaping creatures who lift their heads from mundane tasks to consider distant things ... shadowed valleys, patched meadow-pockets scattered over timbered hills ... tumble-rough peaks mounting the horizon in granite frames.





Here where air is pure, and spring flowers still come blooming in late summer ... and heaven’s messages flash on shafted, jagged lightening legs ... let my spirit dwell.





Here it has been mine to savor beauty and peace. Here too has come that gift of renewal which goes beyond escape and wakens within ... a patient readiness to go down responsibly into the valley of man. ...





But O God, let some bit of mountain meadow grace be stored up in me ... as nurture and balance for grim gray days. ...





Bill is survived by his three children, Kerry (Chick Beckley) Burkhardt of Potomac, Lindy (Jim) Bartruff of Emporia, Kan. and Cindy Santos of Salida, Colo.; and their mother Kay; his two grandchildren, Sarah and Taylor Beckley; his sister Bessie Linvill of Pacific Grove, Calif.; sister Patsy Morris of Owasso, Okla.; brother Carl (Maxine) Burkhardt of Lincoln, Neb., and his wife Pat and her children, Jill (Jerry) Duke of San Francisco, Jock (Tere) Bovington of Helena, and their four children, Samia (Georg) Kornweibel of Seattle, Tivan Bovington of London, England, Jock Bovington of Santa Barbara, Calif., Jace Bovington of Spokane, Kim (Ted) Mead and their two children, Patrick and Ben Mead of Missoula, Sam (Teri) Bovington and their two children Megan and Sam of Oak Harbor, Wash., and Tom (Judy) Bovington and their two children, Helen and Neal of Helena.





Cremation has taken place at the Cremation and Burial Society of the Rockies and a memorial service will take place sometime next summer in Helena and Billings.




Read Bill Burkhardt's Obituary and Guestbook.