September 28, 2022

Gary Niles Kimble
​ January 3, 1942 - July 30, 2022

Gary Niles Kimble, 80, former President Bill Clinton appointee and senate-confirmed Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, died July 30 at the Veteran’s Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Kimble, a native of Fort Belknap, Mont., and a member of the Gros Ventre tribe, had a long and distinguished career with the US Government from which he eventually retired.
Kimble attended grade school in Elliston and graduated from Powell County High School in 1962.
He concentrated on labor and employment relations, environmental matters and public health and welfare issues during 1972-1978 while a member of the Montana House of Representatives representing Missoula. From 1979-1982, he was executive director of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission in Portland.
He was also the former executive director of the Association on American Indian Affairs in New York.
Kimble served as an advisor on Indian affairs in the Office of the Governor of Montana between 1983-1986. During most of that period, he also was chairman of the board of directors for the Missoula Indian Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program. From 1987-1988, he was with the Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark College, as an adjunct professor of federal Indian law and director of the affirmative action program.
Kimble also worked as counsel in 1979 for the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, served as assistant professor of Native American studies at the University of Montana and represented the State Department as a delegate to the U.S. - Canada treaty negotiations on Pacific fishery.
He was a graduate of the University of Montana Journalism School in 1968 and the School of Law in 1972. He was a US Army Veteran having served in the US Army in Vietnam.
One of his most proud achievements was his receipt of the Distinguished Alumni Awardfrom the University of Montana in 1993.
His father, Aubrey Elwood Kimble; mother, Cecilia Stiffarm; and brother, Raymond, preceded him in death.
His memorial service was held Sept. 2 at the Fort Belknap Community Center in Harlem, Mont., with interment services at the Philipsburg cemetery.

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Funeral notice

​Donald Robert Beck, 76, died Sept. 23, 2022, at his home in Gold Creek. Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 1, at Hillcrest Cemetery in Deer Lodge. You are welcome to attend.
A celebration of life and luncheon will be held immediately afterward at the 45 Barn at Garrison, located at 50 US Hwy 12 E.