Physician remembered as friend, good neighbor

Gary Barker remembers the conversations on the Lochsa River after a day of kayaking, around the campfire looking at the stars above. They would talk about the theory of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity — two laws of physics that are true, but don’t jive.

“He was one of the few people I could talk to about that,” Barker recalled of his late friend, Dr. Jon Torgerson.

The physician’s body was found under the snows of a small avalanche on May 12 on the slopes of Big Mountain.

Torgerson 62, went missing Feb. 17, when he went backcountry skiing near the Flower Point area. Search and rescue workers scoured the area by foot, ski, snowmobile and helicopter for weeks after his disappearance, going from tree to tree, thinking he may have gone in a tree well.

Last Thursday, friends, family, former patients and co-workers gathered at Bonsai Brewing in Whitefish to celebrate Torgerson’s life.

Barker said he never did get an answer to his questions on quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, but he had a simple request for his friend.

“Send me the answer in a dream,” he said, looking skyward.

John and Robin Gangemi were Torgerson’s next-door neighbors. They had an arrangement — they shared the plow to clear each other’s driveways of snow during the winter.

“He was way ahead,” John recalled. “He’d be up at 5:30 a.m. plowing. I owed him hundreds of plowings. He was the best neighbor in the world.”

Torgerson was born in Madagascar on Feb. 2, 1956, to the Rev. Sheldon and Margery Torgerson.

He attended Carleton College and graduated in 1978, where his work hard, play hard lifestyle began to take clear shape. He plowed through a demanding pre-med curriculum and made many friends with his adventurous nature and fun-loving spirit. It was during these years that Jon hitched a freight train ride that landed him in Whitefish where he first fell in love with the town and its nearby mountains, his obituary noted.

As an emergency room doctor at North Valley Hospital, colleagues recalled his poise under pressure.

“He was as cool as a cucumber,” said Lexie Gearhart, a phlebotomist who often worked with Torgerson. “He treated each individual on the team with respect and dignity. He was very, very kind.”

Mike Potter was a patient of Torgersons. Potter was having health problems and Torgerson was the first to diagnose that Potter, who is in excellent shape, had a heart condition.

The doctor helped Potter get treatment through the Veterans Choice program. And his diagnosis was spot on — Potter actually had a heart attack eight months later.

“I can still remember his kindness and great doctoring,” Potter said.

Torgerson is survived by both parents, his sisters Shelby and Heidi, and his brother Bob, and his wife Sara Krebsbach Torgerson and their children Xander, Lizzy, Emily and Aaron.