Robert Kettenring:
CLASS OF 1960
Great Falls High SchoolClass of 1960
Great falls, MT
Robert's Story
Life
Just before being discharged from the Army I got married only to be divorced 8 years later, but was blessed with 2 boys during that time. in 1978 I moved to Laurel, MT and became active in the City Government by being on the Street and alley committee and assisted them on many legal aspects in conjunction with the Department of Highways. I was also on the Laurel Herbstfest committee for three years (that is like the German Oktoberfest). At the same time I was a member of the Association of Montana Highway patrolmen and in February of 1984 we went to Las Vegas for a National Troopers Coalition conference and came back with an idea and organized the Montana Hope Project which gave terminally ill children a wish (similar to the Make a Wish foundation). Ours was the only one in the nation that was completely funded by a law enforcement agency and to this day is still granting wishes to children.
Unfortunately I have been married several times with none of them working out and have been divorced now for 15 years. I guess that I am too ornery to live with.
In Oct of 2007 I decided to move closer to my boys, so I sold my house in Billings and moved to Vancouver, WA. I arrived here on Oct 17th at 9:00 P.M. and at 2:08 A.M. on Oct 18th I had a new granddaughter. Talk about timing, she was just waiting for me to get here.
Workplace
After being discharged from the service I returned to Great Falls and went to work for International Harvester Truck Division as a Assistant Accountant in the office for 2 years and then decided to try my hand at sales and went to work for Prudential Insurance (the Debit Office). It was ok but wasn't my cup of tea. I was more interested in helping people so a friend talked me into applying for the Montana Highway Patrol. I was accepted and after training moved to Billings to become a Driver's Examiner. While doing this for 2 1/2 years I gave over 12,000 driving tests and only had 56 accidents while giving them. That was a harrowing experience and decided to work traffic. I did that until I retired in 1990. I went to work as a driver then Operations Manager of a non-profit bus company that transported the el...Expand for more
derly and handicapped until they eliminated my position due to budget crunches. A stint at manual labor was my next occupation and made cabinets for medical buildings and other companies. That was very interesting making them from scratch to the final product and shipping them all over the US, some of my work can be seen at a lot of the Flying J truck stops. After deciding that manual labor wasn't my bag, I took a job as Administrator of the local Moose Lodge. It was in a downhill spiral and while trying to get it out of a spin I made enemys with a few of the board members, thus it was decided I should try something different. I took a year off and then took a job with a local Trucking Company as their safety assistant and Fuel Manager (they had 1,200 trucks). Car hauling was their specialty and I was able to save them a huge chunk of change in fuel costs. After a reorganization of the company I found myself again without employment I ventured into my latest endevure of being a PawnBroker with a company that has 14 stores in Montana and Idaho. It is very interesting and you meet people from all walks of life and different life styles
Military
Joined the Army just 3 days after graduating from High School. Took my training at Fort Ord, CA and was stationed there after. Just a week after reporting to duty there we were sent to North of Sacramento to fight a huge forest fire for 2 weeks. That was a spectacular that I will never forget. When they built the Berlin Wall our Battalion was sent to France 75 k south of Paris to a little town called Chinon (that was where Joan of Arc was imprisioned). Was able to make it to Paris 3 different times in the year I was there, and saw many wonderful sights and the Louvre Museum, which included the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, The Blue Boy, and Last Supper. Traveled to southern France to play in the finals of the Army vollyball tournament after winning the 1st Log Division Championship (didn't do too well there). Came back to Fort Ord and then went to Fort Lewis, WA for a big Army-Air Force exercise for 2 months, then back to Fort Ord. Was discharged from active duty the last day of May 1963
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