Greatest generation loses a Bobcat

[Griznationalist]

A great one passed on this week (I know the family):

HELENA - William L. "Bill" Zupan, 87, an Army veteran and a member of Montana State University first football bowl team, died of natural causes Tuesday in Helena.

Visitation is noon to 6 p.m. Friday at the Helena Funeral Chapel, with rosary at 6. Funeral Mass is 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Church in Helena, with burial at a later date. A reception will follow.

Born in Centerville in 1921 to John and Mary Zupan, recent immigrants from Slovenia, he was one of nine children. Three of his brothers were born in the "Old Country," and his father preceded them to the United States. He sent for the family but moved suddenly from Nevada to Butte, and so it delayed the embarkation of his wife and sons. Bill's mother sold her tickets in Le Harve, France, where she would have boarded the Titanic, and made the voyage several months later.

Bill worked in his father's coal and silver ore mines as a young man, an enterprise that convinced him of the wisdom of further education. A stellar athlete in high school, he received a football scholarship from Montana State University, for which he played halfback before and after World War II. He was a member of MSU's first bowl team (The Harbor Bowl in San Diego) and is a member of the Bobcat Hall of Fame. One of the famed Golden Bobcats, he was the only player to survive the war and return to play again for his beloved Cats. His story was featured on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" in 2001.

As a green lieutenant in Patton's Army, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a number of harrowing encounters, not the least of which was meeting Virginia (Ginny) Byrnes, a beautiful Army nurse from Detroit. This happy union, which lasted 62 years, produced six children, of whom he was very proud.

After graduating, Bill taught school briefly at Bear Creek before returning to the Gulch, where he was superintendent of Centerville High School for 11 years. To better support a growing family, he moved to Great Falls in 1959 and went on to sell Hamilton Mutual Funds for a decade before going to work for the Montana State Employment Service, from which he retired. He and Ginny moved to Helena in 1997.

A remarkable wing shot, fisherman and cribbage player (he won the Montana State Cribbage Championship in 1999), he passed on these passions, which are only a few of the innumerable blessings he passed on to his children and grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife Virginia of Helena; a sister, Olga Powell of Downey, Calif.; and children Shan Zupan, Mary Kay (Paul) Bogumill, Laurie Zupan of Helena; sons Terry (Nance) of Great Falls, Kim (Janet) of Missoula, Dan (Janice) of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a number of nieces and nephews; 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Bill was preceded in death by his parents; brothers John, Frank, Albert, Stanley, Joe and John; and sisters Lilly and Anna.