BILL ROPER, Obituary

HAMILTON Bill Clyde Roper, 87, of Hamilton, formerly of Cut Bank, passed away Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002, at a Hamilton care center.

Visitation was scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Daly-Leach Chapel in Hamilton. A prayer service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Daly-Leach Chapel with Father John Darragh officiating. Interment will follow at Riverview Cemetery in Hamilton.

Bill was born March 15, 1915, in Havre to the late Clyde Charles and Eglantine Bessette Roper. Bill graduated from Havre High School and attended one year of college at Northern Montana College.

He married Letha Teeple in June 1935 at Fort Benton. Together they raised four daughters. Bill worked 30 years for the Federal Aviation Administration at the Cut Bank Airport as an air traffic controller and weather observer.

Bill was a loyal friend, and he and his friends often played practical jokes on each other. He loved fishing and having coffee with his friends. As an avid amateur radio operator he enjoyed visiting with "hams" around the world as well as providing communications for community events. He gathered hundreds of contact cards from all over the world. He helped others become hams by teaching aspiring operators and administering amateur radio license tests.

He worked at St. Margaret's Catholic Church in Cut Bank as a volunteer maintenance worker for many years.

Survivors include his wife, Letha of Hamilton; daughters, Jacqueline (Bob) Olson of Hamilton, Dyan Bessette of Sitka, Alaska, and Rise' (Rick) Staufer of Superior, Colo .; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; daughter, Ronnalie Roper; and sister, Idale Cordes.