Ray and Jerrie Boksich crowned Winter Carnival royalty

A Whitefish couple known for their work with the American Field Services Exchange Student Program and the Whitefish school system will reign as the Whitefish Winter Carnival King Ullr and Queen of the Snows.

Ray and Jerrie Boksich were crowned Saturday night in downtown Whitefish.

Ray was born and raised in Butte. He graduated from Butte High School in 1965 and then tried various colleges around the state before focusing on education as his career and completing his degree in elementary education at Western Montana College in 1971.

After completing his student teaching at Muldown Elementary School, he was hired to be a fourth-grade teacher at the school in fall 1972. He stayed at Muldown for 10 years and then moved to Central School as a sixth-grade teacher and library/media specialist for 15 years. He completed his teaching career as the lead teacher for the Whitefish Independent High School, a position he felt was made to order for him.

While teaching at Muldown, Ray met his future wife, Jerrie Nadeau, also a teacher. They were married in 1976. Their daughter, Merika, and her husband. Mike Barbieri, and their son, Garth, and his wife Sarah Bell, all live in Whitefish. The Boksiches have five grandchildren.

Ray and Jerrie have hosted 25 American Field Services exchange students who have each lived with them for a school year. Currently with them are Alex Mazzonetto and Tamino Michels from Brazil and Switzerland, respectively. They have been involved in various capacities with American Field Services.

Because of his involvement with American Field Services, Ray has spent a considerable amount of time working with foreign students at the local, state and national level, traveling with students to various countries such as New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea and Africa.

Ray is a former Whitefish Mayor and City Council member. He most recently served a term on the Whitefish Community Library board and is currently serving on the city Park Board. He also was very active in both the local and state levels of the Whitefish and Montana Education Associations.

Ray’s first involvement with the Whitefish Winter Carnival was in 1972. He and Jerrie were members of the Whitefish Congenials (the Blue Coats), a group who were supporters and promoters of the carnival and other city events. In 1993 Ray was chosen as the carnival prime minister. He has been a regular at the Merrymaker and for many years has entertained the crowd with his “Prime on the Street” portion of the program. He was the recipient of the High Ullr Award in 2005.

Jerrie was born and raised in Portland. After high school she attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, for two years and then transferred to the University of Montana, graduating in 1970. She started coming to Whitefish in 1967 and worked summers here at the 19th Hole Restaurant at the Whitefish Lake Golf Course while finishing college and has lived here ever since.

She started her first and only teaching job in Whitefish in 1970 when Lloyd Muldown hired her. As she puts it, “He was such a far-sighted and charismatic educator that I said yes to a job before I even asked what the salary would be.” Over the years she taught every grade from first through eighth as a classroom teacher, Title I teacher, gifted and talented teacher, and curriculum specialist.

Jerrie retired in 2012 after teaching in Whitefish for 40 years. She continues to get her “kid fix” by being a guest teacher.

Education and teacher training have always been a focus in Jerrie’s life. She has been past president of both the local Northwest Reading Council and the Montana State Reading Council. She worked on the development of every Montana Office of Public Instruction language arts curriculum since 1988. She is a member of and has held offices in the Delta Kappa Gamma Teacher’s Honorary. She has been awarded the Pam Atchison Outstanding Literacy Teacher Award, first by the local and then state Reading Associations, received a Lifetime Literacy Award and the national Milken Family Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award in 1994.

The Boksiches volunteer weekly at the Whitefish Community Center, helping with the Meals on Wheels program. They enjoy camping and traveling in their free time. They have visited many of their former exchange students to learn about the diverse cultures around the world and hope to continue to do so for many years.

Jerrie has been involved with the Winter Carnival since 1976 when she helped organize the Bicentennial Winter Carnival Muldown float with about 150 students marching in the parade that year. She served as a parade judge several times. Jerrie was the official “Royal Scribe,” hand lettering all of the knightings from the early 1980s until about 10 years ago when computers took over. She has been knighted several times and received the High Ullr Award in 1995 for her involvement.