Gerald A. Diettert

Gerald Allen Diettert, 87, entered the world Sept. 25, 1927, and passed away Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015, surrounded by his family.

Jerry was a humble and dignified man. He never complained or said a bad word about another person, unless it was a politician. He was sensitive, loving, and generous toward his family and others. He befriended strangers with his stories and jokes. He loved to learn and even enrolled in on-line classes at the age of 86.

He was a passionate sailor and taught his children to sail on a 32-foot sailboat that took him four years to build. He enjoyed sailboat racing and was a charter member of the Montana Sailing Association. He was inducted into the Montana Sailing Hall of Fame in the late 1980s. Along with others, he founded the Big Arm Racing Fleet which he proudly referred to as BARF. Some hobbies included oil and acrylic painting, model railroading, reading and spending time with his beloved family at on Flathead Lake.

He was born in Moscow, Idaho, the first son of Reuben and Charlotte Diettert. At the age of 10 he moved to Missoula and attended Paxson Grade School and Missoula County High School. In sixth grade he joined the Cub Scouts. Summer jobs included sheep herding, lawn mowing, window washing and door-to-door magazine sales. He was employed at the Missoula Mercantile and K&W Grocery. He was Time Magazine's Missoula Correspondent and spent summers on a lookout in Northern Idaho.

Jerry attended one year of Pre-Med at the University of Montana (Missoula) and played football for the Grizzlies coached by Jiggs Dahlberg. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for two years in the Army of Occupation in Northern Honsku, Japan in the 32nd Engineer Construction Group. He returned to the University, met a young registered nurse named Ethel Caras on a blind date, and they were married nine months later. He was accepted to Washington University Medical School in St. Louis after only three years of college. Because his wife wanted to marry a doctor, she put him through medical school and post-graduate training. He served his internship and residency at the Barnes Hospital, St. Louis and received a fellowship from the St. Louis Heart Association where he performed heart caths, developed a heart-lung machine, and a procedure for measuring cardiac output.

He returned to Missoula in 1958 and joined Dr. Harold Braun in private practice and later joined the Western Montana Clinic practicing Internal Medicine and Cardiology. He published several articles, performed clinical research, and instituted pulmonary function testing. Together with Dr. Braun, they developed St. Patrick Hospital's first Coronary Care Unit, and provided regional medical training programs where they taught and wrote textbooks on cardiac arrhythmias and Coronary Care.

During the 1960s he served as president on the Missoula Elementary and High School boards, Western Montana Building Corporation, Montana Heart Association, The Exchange Club of Missoula, and Medical Staff at St. Patrick Hospital. He also served on the Hospital Advisory Board.

He returned to UM to receive his bachelor's degree in pre-med graduating with his youngest son Bruce in 1984. He then enrolled in graduate school and received a master's degree in history. He published a book on George Bird Grinnell and the creation of Glacier National Park, "Grinnell's Glacier." He also completed a book on the Caras brothers, "Becoming Americans," and a history of the early Boy Scouts in Western Montana.

He retired on Jan. 1, 1991, when he and Ethel took up golfing and began tutoring Jo Fix's third-grade class at Hellgate Elementary. He was a charter member of the Carousel's Pony Keepers and was also a carver. He volunteered for the Boy Scouts and served as District Commissioner where he received the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver award. He was honored with the first ever Scouting Legacy Award in 2010. Other volunteer activities included First Night Missoula and Museum of Mountain Flying. In 2002, he was named Missoula's Volunteer of the Year. He was a long time member of the Friday Club and Missoula Exchange Club and advocated for child abuse prevention and the Freedom Shrine program.

Most important to his life were his wife of 65 years, Ethel who preceded him in death just two short months before him; his parents and his brother Eldon Diettert (Mann Gulch Fire). He is survived by his four children, Craig (Beth) and Carol Knieper (Ken) of Missoula, Scott (Debbie) of Spokane, and Bruce (Lynn) of Rocklin, California; 15 grandchildren, Brandon, Kristin, Lauren, Josh and Morgan Diettert, Lacey Heidler, Brian, Allen, and Jennifer Knieper, Jamie Williams, Jackie Meyer, Erin and Michael Welch, and Stephanie and Jennifer Wilson, and eight great-grandchildren, Hailey and Donald (Bubba) Heidler, Charlotte, Danika, and Harper Knieper, Riley Branch, David Gibson, and Drake Wilson and his sister Doris Jean (Greg) Johnson, and several nieces and nephews.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4 at Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula. Because Jerry was an avid Grizzly fan, the family will all be wearing Grizzly attire in his honor, and those attending are welcome to do the same.

Memorials are suggested to A Carousel for Missoula and Missoula Exchange Club.
Read Gerald Diettert's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.