Sidney S Frissell

Sidney S. Frissell

September 13, 1938 – March 13, 2026

Sidney S. Frissell, a former resident of Missoula, Emigrant, and Stevensville, MT, died in Hamilton, MT, on March 13, 2026. He was a Forestry professor and Dean at the University of Montana, woodsman and an avid birder, watercolor painter of birds in their natural habitats, and lifelong Ham radio operator. Born in 1938, Sid spent much of his childhood in Keene, New Hampshire. In his teens his family moved to Hopkins Minnesota where he met and married the late Mildred Elizabeth ‘Mickey” (Bloberger) Frissell.

Sid earned a Forestry degree at the University of Minnesota and went to work for the US Forest Service in Randall, Washington. Within a year he returned to graduate studies at Minnesota, earning a Master’s degree and then pursuing a PhD. He moved his family to Missoula in 1967 to begin a teaching position at the University of Montana. He completed his doctoral dissertation and in 1973 published a widely-cited paper on wildfire history and its implications for management of pine forests in northern Minnesota. In collaboration with colleagues he made lasting contributions in wildlife ecology and management, forest recreation, and wilderness management, coauthoring a methodology for assessing sustainability of use of campsites still applied by forest managers today. After serving several years as Associate Dean of the School of Forestry he was promoted to Dean in 1986. Sid and Mickey worked to include their children in Sid’s field research on occasion, sparking their lifelong appreciation of nature and wilderness.

He retired at a relatively young age to pursue a second career in wildlife illustration and bird painting, and to revisit his childhood avocation of Ham radio. He and Mickey traveled widely in the western states until her passing. Sid struggled with the challenges of Parkinson’s disease in his final years. Sid and Mickey are survived by their children Christopher Frissell and wife Dale Hannon of Polson, Heidi Zielinski and husband Michael of Stevensville, and Marcy Frissell of Bozeman, as well as grandchildren Peregrine, Aubrey, Beatrix, and Michael. At Sid’s request, no services will be held. The family will gather to celebrate his life at a later date.