Robert "Bob" Newell Banner

CHARLOS HEIGHTS - Robert Newell Banner, 93 of Charlos Heights, peacefully passed away surrounded by loved ones Saturday, November 19, 2022, at Bitterroot Health Daly Hospital.

Bob was born March 10, 1929, in Syracuse, New York. He was the youngest of three children born to Charles and Grace Banner. Bob was raised on a beef and dairy farm around Tully, New York, and his family logged during the summers in the Adirondack Mountains filling lumber contracts.

Bob loved baseball and football and played both sports in high school. After high school graduation, Bob went to Purdue University, where he tried out for the football team and graduated with a wildlife management degree. Upon graduation, he returned to manage the family dairy farm, in Tully, New York. Bob was also a ski instructor in Stowe, Vermont, and Song Mountain Ski Resort, in upstate New York. It was there that he met a fellow ski instructor, that ultimately became his lovely wife of 56 years, Jane Baker.

On July 15, 1961, Bob and Jane were married. For their honeymoon, they went on a guided hunt, in Livingston, Montana. They fell in love with Montana, so they went back to New York, sold their dairy farm, in 1968, and moved to the Bitterroot Valley, south of Hamilton, Montana. Bob worked for the next 25 years in Range, Recreation, and Watershed Management.

Bob loved wildlife, and the wilderness. He once proclaimed, ”I was in my glory” pulling a string of pack horses in the Anaconda Pintler, setting up trail crew camps or assisting big game biologists dart mountain sheep or trap elk.

Bob and his family attended Charlos Heights Community Church, where he taught Sunday School classes for some time. Bob also managed Hot Shot Fire Crews from Montana to California. He was a 4H leader in the beef cattle and woodworking projects. He was a great father who taught his kids to have a strong faith in God, a hard work ethic and to be self-sufficient.

Bob is survived by his daughter, Tabitha Banner of Charlos Heights; son, Todd (Kate ) Banner of Sun River, MT; 7 grandchildren: Macall Banner, Mackenzie Banner both of Weatherford, TX, Gage Banner, Emmett Banner, Avery Banner, Arianne Banner, Billy Bob Banner, all of Sun River, MT; and one great granddaughter, Scottie June Prow.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, July 6, 2023 at the Daly-Leach Chapel in Hamilton.