Robert B Chaney Jr.

Robert Bruce Chaney Jr. died on Dec. 30, 2016, on his way to dinner.

Robert was born Aug. 22, 1932, in Helena to Robert and Nell (Syverson) Chaney, the oldest of three children.

In grade school, he and a friend once talked their mothers out of bus fare to Butte so they could visit the Columbia Gardens amusement park. Then they thumbed down a truck driver for the ride, saving the money for a grander time on the town.

When the infamous Mann Gulch forest fire started in 1949, Robert was too young to join the firefighting crew. But a buddy learned that the U.S. Navy office in Helena was handling some of the communications for the fire. The boys volunteered their services, got to help with the firefighting, and went home. That Christmas Eve, a Navy man arrived at the big yellow house on top of Howie Street with Robert's enlistment papers and orders to report for basic training — to his mother's furious surprise.

From that awkward beginning, Robert's naval career continued in unexpected directions. He was assigned as a clerk on the U.S.S. Lake Champlain aircraft carrier and sailed out of Mayport, Florida, bound for the Korean War. But the ship was too big to get through the Panama Canal, and had to take the long way around South America. It reached the battle theater barely a month before Armistice was declared on July 27, 1953.

Having made it halfway around the globe, the Lake Champlain's captain decided to keep going, giving Robert a government-funded round-the-world tour around India, through the Suez Canal, and several nice ports-of-call on the Mediterranean (sneaking in a roadtrip from Cannes to Lisbon to catch up with the ship before crossing the Atlantic). He served under the ship's chief intelligence officer, who was an alcoholic. Robert said the officer used the carrier's top-secret safe to hide his liquor supply, transferring the battle plans and nuclear codes of Task Force 77 to Robert's tin desk.

Returning to the United States with a wanderlust and a G.I. Bill college fund, Robert enrolled in the University of Montana and went on to earn his Ph.D. in audiology from Stanford University in 1962. During those studies, his professor and UM colleague Chuck Parker acquainted him with a speech pathology student named Myrna Eyerly, who was also studying at Stanford. They were married on June 20, 1963 in Myrna's hometown of Livingston, and moved to San Diego where Robert was finishing his post-doctoral work.

He was invited to teach at the University of Montana and returned to Missoula in 1964, days after the birth of his first son, Robert III, who is still grouchy about having to list San Diego as his birthplace. Second son Ross was born in Missoula in 1969, a passport-carrying Montanan.

While at UM, he participated in early national studies on the potential for hearing loss during snowmobile use. He also discovered that much of the university's permanent art collection was being stored in steam tunnels because there was no suitable museum facility. He and his Speech and Hearing Department colleagues liberated/rescued much of the collection and hung it on the walls of what's now the Curry Health Center, where the paintings could be both enjoyed and preserved.

After retiring from UM, Robert started working with the U.S. Veterans Administration as a private hearing-loss consultant. At both Fort Harrison and his home office in Missoula's Rattlesnake neighborhood, he fitted hundreds of veterans with hearing aids. In 2013, the Acoustical Society of America awarded him its gold membership certificate for a half-century of activity.
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A lifelong music lover, Robert attended a Missoula String Orchestra of the Rockies concert and was frustrated with the improper placing of the acoustic shell behind the performers. He volunteered to set those up beforehand, and in return was asked to join SOR's board of directors. He also served three terms as the UM Art Foundation chairman.

Robert was equally devoted to Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, singing in its choir for his entire time in Missoula and serving on its vestry board. His remains will be interred in the church's columbarium wall.

Robert and Myrna instilled in their children a devotion to travel, adventure, learning, art and good food. Although beset with short-term memory loss in his later years, Robert remained determined to keep up with the news, visit his many friends, and take one more road trip to see Glacier National Park. His peaceful death at home on Friday evening was probably the only time he was late for dinner.

Robert was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Nell, and brother Ken.

He is survived by wife Myrna, sons Robert (Magda) and Ross (Vicki); sister Alice; grandchildren Ania, Martin, Jonas and Jember; and numerous other relations.

A memorial service for Robert will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, with reception following at the parish hall.

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