Whitefish loses a longtime friend Sam McGough

Sometimes, grieving the loss of a loved one elicits laughter as well as tears. That was the case when family gathered to share stories about Sam McGough, local business owner and friend, who died Dec. 21 at the age of 79.

Stories about his deep love for his family, his genuine, caring nature and his commitment to his community brought out intense feelings of sadness mixed with moments of humor.

McGough and his wife, Donna, owned and operated McGough & Co., a fine jewelry store in downtown Whitefish, for 30 years. When they retired in 2017, their daughter, Stacey Franklin took over the business.

Sam was known for greeting customers with one-liners intended to make people feel more at ease and open lines of communication. He might say, “You’re so handsome, you remind me of my own self,” or use his most well-known quip, “Stick with me baby, you’ll be wearing diamonds big as horse turds.”

Donna recalled another line, “Everything's for sale, except for my wife. And she’s for rent.” 

“He loved people and he loved talking to them and finding out everything – their history, where they live … he was really, truly interested, too,” said his daughter, Samantha Woodruff. “He made a lot of friends. He was super real, super social.”

She said that some people would come to the store just to talk with Sam for long periods of time, and he never got tired of that. She said he’d wind up working in the shop until late at night just to get the work done.

“He really liked to talk to people. Every time we’d go somewhere to eat, the waitress or the waiter would get the whole questionnaire,” said Donna. “He was so soft-hearted.”

While she was shopping recently, Stacey ran into a longtime customer who explained how the tradition of sharing a popular side dish started. It is a story that illustrates Sam’s generous nature.

The woman began by telling Stacey that Sam hadn’t been a fan of her engagement ring.

“It was the only ring she and her husband could afford,” Stacey explained. “It had their children’s birthstones in it. They weren’t real, but the woman said they couldn’t afford anything else.”

Sam asked the woman to let him have the ring and to trust him. He kept it for about six weeks.

“She picked it up and began crying,” Stacey continued. “He had replaced the false gems with diamonds and charged her $150 and a bowl of potato salad. Every year, she’d come in and bring him potato salad and they became great friends.”

Stacey added that he was always doing things like that for people. It was his nature to help people, whether that was with a relatively small act or something more dramatic.

“He did do grand gestures for publicity, like the shaving of his head for the Alpine Theatre Project,” said Stacey. “He loved attention.”

What began as a bet between friends turned into a large donation to a local nonprofit.

“Our friend from Indiana would come and he's bald, so he wanted Sam to be bald, because Sam's hair was amazing,” Donna said. “He said, ‘I’ll pay you $5,000 if you shave your head.’”

More money was pitched in and the bet became a $6,000 donation to the Alpine Theatre Project.

“He donated all the excavation work for the WAVE (Aquatic and Fitness Center),” Samantha said. “He didn’t do it for recognition, but he got recognition for it because it was a big deal. The community really appreciated that.”

During the Christmas Stroll downtown, Sam would dress up as Santa. He loved the community so much that Donna said it never crossed his mind to leave it.

“He got involved with everything downtown,” Stacey said. “He really spoke his mind and he had an opinion about everything and he didn’t care who he offended.”

SAM WAS AN extremely accomplished professional heavy machine operator, patent-holding inventor, and jeweler. He owned a jewelry manufacturing business, and invented an adobe brick-making machine, a concrete machine and a wood burning stove.

“From his building equipment to everything else he could do, it was all self-taught. No college education, no jewelry classes,” Stacey said. “But he could fix anything. 

“No YouTube videos back then,” she added with a smile. 

His generosity reached beyond his own community when he spent a year in Mexico, using his 

adobe brick machine and his onsite concrete machine to build homes for people in poverty.

The Wounded Warrior Project was an organization dear to Sam’s heart. He donated to the cause and once hosted a party for any and all wounded warriors who could attend. 

Donna explained that, because Sam had a daughter at the time, he was not drafted for the war in Vietnam. 

“But a lot of his friends, our friends, got killed in Vietnam and he felt bad that he didn’t go,” she said.

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Wounded Warrior Project in Sam's name.

“Just helping people is what he loved doing,” Samantha said. “He loved his family … and loved helping as many people as he could.” 

She said he loved his community, jewelry, heavy equipment, his friends, Montana and most of all, he loved his wife.

The three women were reminded of his one-liner about his wife being for rent. 

“I had no takers!” Donna exclaimed.

And with that comment, crying, once again, gave way to laughter. 

“He was well-loved and he’s going to be deeply missed,” Samantha said, with both a tear and a smile on her face. “It’s hard to lose the legends – the iconic Whitefish or Flathead Valley men and women who made big differences.” 

    McGough gives some kids a ride on an excavator. (Photo provided)
  

    Sam McGough