John Stephen Mest

John Stephen Mest passed away on February 17, 2025, at Parkhaven Memory Care in Manhattan, MT, at the age of 94, after a prolonged battle with dementia. John was born August 17, 1930, in Allentown, Pennsylvania to Gerard Stephen and Verna Victoria (Eckart) Mest. He was raised in Allentown along with his younger brother, David.

He became an avid outdoorsman at a young age, learning flyfishing, fly tying, and trapping skills from his uncle, Earl Eckart. He attended Muhlenberg college in Allentown, with plans to attend medical school. He was accepted to Jefferson medical College in Philadelphia, graduating and earning his MD in 1957. He then completed an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital and 1 year of internal medicine residency at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania.

The summers of 1949 to 1955 were spent working for the Forest Service in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest in northern Idaho. He traveled 2800 miles across the country by bus each spring and fall. He had many entertaining stories from those years, particularly about kicking young black bears out of camp. Multiple activities for the Forest Service included firefighting, and he always could vividly recall hearing the chilling news about the Mann Gulch fire disaster in Montana during the summer '49 while working in Idaho. He generally spent any free time he had flyfishing in the streams of Idaho, foregoing the favorite activity of all his coworkers which was to "go to town and raise hell". His time in the West convinced him that after his residency he would be moving West.

While at Geisinger he met his future wife, Eleanor Yvonne Benson, a 1958 nursing graduate. He asked her to marry him but also told her he was going to live in Montana. Essentially, he told her that marriage included moving to Montana, if she didn't want to go, he would go alone. She literally decided at the last minute, and they were married July 12, 1959, in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Immediately afterward they loaded all their belongings into John's 1953 Studebaker and drove to their new home in White Sulphur Springs, Montana; an adventure, to say the least, for a young woman who had never been west of Pennsylvania. Eleanor admitted many years later that at the time she thought "he would get it out of his system after a couple of years and we could go back to Pennsylvania." She then grew to love Montana as much as he did.

They lived in White Sulphur Springs until 1971. They were welcomed by the community and made many lifelong friends, frequently returning to White Sulphur for many years to visit. In 1961 John became the only doctor in White Sulphur when the doctor who recruited him left town. He practiced the old-fashioned way, literally doing some of everything including an emergency appendectomy when all roads to a larger town were snowed shut - his only surgical training being a surgical rotation during internship. Two children joined the family in the 60s, Dagny Ayn in 1965 and Stephen John in 1967. By 1971 the demands of being the only doctor in a small town became excessive and the family moved to Manhattan, Montana where he would live the rest of his life. He worked at the MSU student health service for several years, then transitioned to working in the Emergency Room at St. Peter's Hospital in Helena. He retired from medicine in 1989.

John was a very accomplished classical pianist. He began piano at the age of 6 and continued playing throughout his life until his memory loss eventually took that skill away. He played all of the Chopin Etudes, Liszt's Liebestraum, the Rhapsody in Blue, and many others. He played for essentially all the weddings in the family. In the '80s he also played an old piano at Saint Peter's Hospital during slow periods in the Emergency Room, and to this day there are former coworkers in Helena who recall his beautiful piano music coming from the basement of the hospital.

John was an avid fly fisherman and became known for fly tying. During his years in White Sulphur, he was able to fish the Smith River during the "glory days," when it was exceedingly rare to even spot another fisherman on the river. A testament to his compulsive nature; he kept a fishing log of every fish he caught including the date, the fly they took and the water temperature at the time. It was quite a book by the time he left White Sulphur. In the early 70's Bud Lily invited him to demonstrate fly tying in West Yellowstone at the annual meeting of the International Federation of Flyfishers (along with a conference room full of other fly tyers). He did this for 2 years.

He became an excellent skier, and during his time in White Sulphur, spent one day per week skiing on the volunteer Ski Patrol at "King's Hill" ski area - subsequently renamed Showdown. When he moved to Manhattan he transferred to the Bridger Bowl volunteer Ski Patrol, skiing on the patrol every weekend until 1985 when the volunteer patrol was discontinued in favor of a full professional patrol. Subsequently he and Eleanor skied with the Eagle Mount program for disabled skiers, for essentially as long as they were physically able.

John loved to backpack throughout Montana and took many trips through the Spanish Peaks, Beartooths, and Crazy Mountains. He built his own lightweight reflector oven out of aluminum and frequently baked bread in that oven in front of the campfire in the evenings, which then served for lunch the next day. On his 80th birthday he was on a short backpack in the Beartooths with his family, including his 5-year-old twin grandchildren. After that trip at his age he had pretty much had enough backpacking.

He loved taking his canoe down local rivers. He and Eleanor floated all the local rivers many times over. John would canoe the year around, "weather permitting". This was a loose definition, really, just meaning there was water free of ice. In retirement he fashioned his own sailing apparatus for his canoe, including building the lee boards and sewing his own sail.

John is survived by his wife of 65 years, Eleanor Mest, of Manhattan; daughter, Dagny Mest, of Manhattan; son, Stephen (Chris) Mest, of Helena; and 3 grandchildren, Luke, Maria and Gabe Mest. He was preceded in death by his parents, Gerard and Verna Mest, and his brother, David Mest.

The family would like to thank the staff at Parkhaven Memory Care and Enhabit Hospice for their compassionate care. A service will be held Saturday, May 24th - details will be forthcoming. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www. dahlcares.com.