Jon Alden Wilson “Bing” passed away on December 18, 2025, at the age of 82. He was born on June 2, 1943, in Great Falls, Montana to Herbert and Alice Wilson.
When Bing was small, his mother, Alice would call him her “Big Boy” but Bing couldn’t say “Big Boy” it would come out “Bing Boy” and the nickname stuck and everyone knew him as Bing. He was an only child born into a community that was fully involved in World War II. Times were difficult and required self-sufficiency, which led him to plant his first garden and would eventually reap its harvest. Bing would often say in his latter years “We lived through the best of times!”
While attending Great Falls High School, Bing met Ida Mae Wilhelms and they began dating. At the age of 16, his gym teacher recognized his ability to run, and invited him to join the track team, telling Bing he could go places as a track star. Bing’s response was “NO WAY! I’m getting a job to make money” and he did just that. You could find Bing working after school and on weekends at Public Drug as their box boy. His work ethic was shaped by those around him, and he would mow lawns and shovel snow from the walks throughout the neighborhood to earn money.
Bing graduated from high school and decided to journey to Denver for the study of electrical engineering. After only three months the school shut down and Bing returned home to Ida Mae, and his job at Public Drug. Bing built a great career at Public Drug starting from a “box boy” and “delivery boy” moving on to manager and then became president of Public Drug Corp where he worked for 48 years.
Soon after moving back to Great Falls, Bing and Ida Mae would get married and welcome their daughter, Debbie. They purchased a house which was sorely in need of repairs and put Bing’s carpentry skills to work that he learned from a time of “get to work and figure it out”. Together Bing and Ida Mae remodeled, repaired, and rebuilt the house and turned it into their home.
They also remodeled the home Bing grew up in as well as an old, dilapidated cabin in Milligan, Montana where he met and developed a long-lasting friendship with Richard Anderson. Bing would often lend a helping hand on the ranch and the two of them eventually purchased an old sawmill and logging truck. They built two log cabins in Smith River country with lumber they processed themselves. Bing was an impressive carpenter and would build all the cabinets and furniture for the homes while Ida Mae would help finish them Bing and Ida Mae would make furniture out of the leftover lumber to be sold. Bing was very creative and built a wooden oxen team wagon and a variety of other furniture that would win multiple awards at the state fair competitions.
Bing and family had a love for the great outdoors, and they would spend time enjoying camping, fishing, and hunting around Montana. From a book of wildflowers, Bing and Ida Mae hiked all around and were able to identify over forty different wildflowers and mushrooms. They dug for sapphires and would bring home buckets of gravel from the mines to search through in the wintertime looking for gemstones. They had a ball doing this.
Bing also taught himself the skill of taxidermy mounting fish, game birds, and did European skulls for customers. He was a skilled hunter and enjoyed packing elk quarters on his metal pack frames, and after successful hunts he would often come home with animals on the top of his trusty Nissan Patrol. Bing enjoyed time with family teaching his daughter, Debbie, how to hunt and fish and later, he even got to pass down that tradition to his granddaughter, Kelsey. With the money Bing would save from selling furniture, meat processing, and taxidermy, he got to adventure to Canada where he was able to hunt moose, buffalo, and a mountain goat.
Bing was also an avid fisherman and would often go to Holter Lake with friends Adolf, Carl K and Carl A. Bing and Ida Mae travelled on multiple fishing trips to Idaho and Alaska in search of salmon and trout. Many of the fish that they caught he mounted himself and displayed them in his basement and would tell stories of the adventures to friends and family.
Bing also planted a large garden every year at his home. Ida Mae would “can” and freeze the harvest from the garden to reserve it for yearlong use. Between all the successful hunting and fishing trips and the garden they were nearly self-sufficient and seldom needed any supplies from the store.
You could catch Bing saying, “He was not rich with money, but he was rich with adventures and experiences”. Bing was a hunter, gardener, woodworker, taxidermist, and preserver. People always recognized him and will remember him for his blue and white polka-dotted welders cap that he wore everywhere. Bing was quite the jokester and had a knack for making people smile and laugh.
Bing will be sorely missed by those in the community that knew him as well as the Mountain View Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He believed in a creator that was responsible for all the beauty he was able to experience wherever he found himself. He looked forward to the time when God’s Kingdom would rid this world of all that took away its beauty.
Bing is survived by his wife, Ida Mae Wilson; daughter, Debbie Wilson; and granddaughter, Kelsey Bair and her husband, Shaun Bair. Bing was preceded in death by his parents, Herbert and Alice Wilson. At Bings request there will be no services.
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