Laurence Osburnsen

Laurence Osburnsen, 94, formerly of Big Arm, and Surprise, Ariz., passed away May 4, 2008, in Kalispell.

Larry was born July 7, 1913, in Joliet, Ill., the seventh of 10 children of Haggen and Alvina Osburnsen. He moved with his family in 1914 to a homestead in the Denton area. He graduated in 1933 from Denton High School, where he was a member of the basketball, football and track teams.

After graduation, he attended the Montana School of Mines from 1934 to 1935 and the University of Montana, where he received a degree in forestry in 1939. He was a member of Druids, a Forest School honorary, and Phi-Sigma Science Honorary.

He enjoyed working for the Forest Service during his summers while in college, manning lookouts and fighting fires. In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was trained as a combat glider pilot.

Larry married Winifred Bickle in Texas in 1942 and had two daughters and a son. In 1980, he was married to Faye Sloan in Las Vegas.

After the war, Larry worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Nebraska and then in Circle, Superior, Missoula and Butte. In 1968, he took a three-month assignment to Senegal, Africa, where he worked with locals to set up a rice-development project.

After his retirement from the SCS in 1973, he took an assignment in Swaziland, Africa, to work on a land development and irrigation project until 1982. In 1984-1985, he was employed by Morrison Knudson to work on a rice-development project in Mindano, Philippines.

After this, he spent his time between his summer home on Flathead Lake and his winter home in Surprise, before moving to Buffalo Hills in Kalispell.

He loved to be outdoors, whether it was fishing, hunting or working on one of his many beloved projects. He also loved to fly and had a commercial pilot's license.

He was preceded in death by Winifred Osburnsen, Faye Sloan-Osburnsen and his son James Osburnsen.

He is survived by his sisters Genevieve Bridger and Marion Billadeau, of Lewistown; daughters Diane Osburnsen, of Mexico, and Linda Gwiazdon, of Whitefish; grandsons Shane Reese, Scott Reese, Koan Mercer and Matthew Gwiazdon; granddaughters Courtney Gwiazdon, Millie Flanigan and Stephanie Conway; and 10 great grandchildren.

A memorial will take place at his home in Big Arm in late summer. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Shriner's Children's Hospital.