Another of the Greatest Generation has passed on.  John Leonard Nelson, oldest of four sons of Sarah and Louis Nelson, died Sunday, November 4 at the Missouri River Medical Center in Fort Benton. A "Yankee Doodle Dandy" born on the Fourth of July, 1925 in New Rochelle, New York to his Montana parents who had gone east to join Louis's older brothers in a family plumbing business.  In 1939, the family, now including younger brothers Bob and Tom, headed back to the family home at Gibson Flats south of Great Falls where youngest brother Ray was born just after Pearl Harbor was attacked.  John spent summers working on the Lyman relatives ranch.  After the war began, he paid 75 cents to get a drivers license and got a job driving officers stationed at Gore Hill and the new East Base.

After graduating from Great Falls High in 1943, Dad joined the Navy and was off to Camp Farragut, Idaho for basic training.  He became an Aviation Ordnance Man, and was stationed at several Naval Air Stations on the Pacific Coast where he flew anti-submarine patrols as a radioman-gunner.

After discharge in 1946, he returned home and became an apprentice for Central Plumbing & Heating.  That fall, he met Dorothie Nelson, daughter of not related Fort Benton homesteaders Anna and Chris Nelson at Howard's Roller Rink.  John and Dorothie were married March 19, 1947 at First United Methodist Church in Great Falls.  They enjoyed the new house built for them by his family at 3208 6th Avenue North for a year until father in law Chris asked them to come out to the farm where they spent the rest of their lives.  In 1951, they adopted son Bruce Edward.

Dad loved farming, Caterpillar tractors, guns and cattle.  When he got an 8 mm movie camera, he took more pictures of cows than anything!  He worked hard and believed in taking care of the land.  He told Bruce when they went camping to always leave a place as good or better than you found it. One spring when Chris and Anna returned from winter in Arizona, John showed off how he had "cleaned up" the farmstead.  Grandpa Chris wasn't so sure, however, as a lot of saddles, tack and furniture he and Grandma Anna had saved over the years was gone!  John joined his Dad and uncles in elk hunting trips to the mountains every year until they all passed away.  Being turned down by a landowner as a young man when he asked to fish on their place on Newlan Creek led Dad to welcome anyone who asked to hunt on our farm provided they did so safely, didn't drive on the wheat and closed gates.

The Carter Rifle Club was a big part of John's life.  The Carter team won many Chouteau County Rifle League and state small bore gallery championships.  In 1958, Dad proudly represented Montana at the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio as a member of the state high power rifle team.  His best work was helping Lones Wigger, Ray Castor and other team members teach generations of kids, including Bruce and grandchildren Erik, Haley and Drew, sportsmanship, marksmanship and the safe handling of firearms in the Carter Junior Rifle Club and the Hunters Safety Program. Dad also served his community as a member of the Fort Benton School Board, Airport Board and as an officer of the Montana Rifle and Pistol Association. To this day, many enjoy the silhouette rifle range he built on the farm.

In later years, Mom and Dad trekked around the West and up into Canada and Alaska, as he got into silhouette shooting.  Dad, Mom and navy buddy, Jim Venner and wife Marcie of St. Paul, logged a lot of RV miles together across the country.  Many friendships were made winters spent in Arizona.  Dad and Mom spent 60 busy years together until she passed away in 2006.

Dad continued to make the farm home with morning trips to get the Tribune, a cup of coffee and roll at Cenex in Fort Benton. Bruce would get calls in Bozeman from friends checking if John was OK when he hadn't been seen in town in a few days.  The years and congestive heart failure finally caught up with him and last January he moved into Sunrise Bluffs in town. A fall and his pushing his Lifeline button for the first time took him to the Missouri River Medical Center in September.  Last Sunday evening, his 93 year race run, God called him home.  He was at peace and not in any pain.

John was proceeded in death by his parents Louis and Sarah, by his wife Dorothie, by brothers Bob, Tom and Ray and by sisters in law Jane Nelson and Bernice Nelson and by brother in law, Don Olson.  He is survived by son Bruce, daughter in law Nancy, grandkids Erik, Haley and Drew, sisters in law Helen Olson Van Horn and Barb Nelson and numerous nieces and nephews.