Clifford Gerhardt:
CLASS OF 1953
Carbon County High SchoolClass of 1953
Red lodge, MT
Red Lodge High SchoolClass of 1953
Red lodge, MT
Roosevelt Intermediate SchoolClass of 1949
Red lodge, MT
Clifford's Story
Life
A synopsis of my travels and adventures after leaving Red Lodge.
At 17 I moved to Butte. Unable to find any work in Butte I hopped a freight train and traveled around the Northwest through Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Wyoming for several months, subsisting on odd jobs whenever, and wherever I could find them. Arriving back in Butte I lied about my age and went to work in the copper mines for a short period. When I turned 18 I went to work at the Anaconda smelter in Anaconda.
At 19 in January of 1955 I enlisted in the Army and after basic training at Fort Carson Colorado, and advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri I was permanently stationed back at Fort Carson Colorado.
I was assigned to a Combat Engineer Battalion attached to the 10th Mountain Division (Skitroopers) and took cold weather survival training at Camp Hale Colorado. Then in August 1956 in the infinite wisdom of the military I was shipped to Guam M. I. and assigned to a heavy construction battalion.
On being discharged from the army I went back to work at the smelter in Anaconda.
I married a local Anaconda girl and over time we had three wonderful children, a boy and two girls.
I apprenticed as an Ironworker, and after receiving my Journeyman Ironworker rating my family and I moved to California. We lived in various communities along ...Expand for more
California coast where I worked mostly on bridge construction.
We eventually moved to Portland Oregon, and I went back to school. At the age of 31 I earned a certificate in computer programming from E. C. P. I. I quit Ironworking and went to work for Safeway Distribution Co. as a Computer Programmer. After a year with Safeway I got a job with Weyerhaeuser Corp., and we moved to Tacoma Washington. I worked at Weyerhaeuser for a couple of years, and then I went to Clover Park School District as Data Processing Manager.
When I was 36 I started skydiving and over several years made approximately 750 parachute jumps. I jumped in airshows around the Northwest and British Columbia.
Using my G. I. Bill I earned a commercial pilot license. I had no intention of following a career in flying, but I just loved flying.
My wife and I divorced in 1972, and I never remarried.
In 1976 I started work for Hillhaven Corp., and retired from my job as Computer Network Analyst at Hillhaven in 1996.
I bought a property in Butte and spent the winters there for several years so I could be in the center of some of the best skiing in the world. In 2000 I sold my home in Tacoma Washington, and moved permanently to Butte.
Moved back to Tacoma WA in 2018 so Butte wasn’t so permanent after all. This my be the last move though, Who knows.
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