Bob Stephens — Farmer
A longtime Dutton farmer and active community member who served in the military and the state Legislature, Robert Edward Stephens, 99, died June 27, 2026.
A viewing will be held on July 17 from 1-3 p.m. at Croxford Funeral Home in Great Falls. There will be military honors at Highland Cemetery in Great Falls on July 20 at 11 a.m. followed by a celebration of life at the Dutton American Legion Hall on July 20 at 1:30 p.m.
Bob was born April 26, 1927, to John William Stephens and Mamie Townley Stephens in Sand Coulee. His older half-sister Bertha Angster (Fry) assisted in his birth. He joined a half-brother, John Angster, and brothers Jim and Bill Stephens.
He attended school in Centerville for grades first through eighth and the first year of high school.
He worked at East Base (Malmstrom), Anaconda Smelter, a Cut Bank car dealership,
Great Northern Railroad and Bremerton Shipyard, to name a few. At 17-years-old he enlisted in the Navy following his brothers Jim (Army Air Corps) and Bill (Army) into World War Il.
Upon discharge from the Navy, April 7, 1946, he went to work for his aunt and uncle,
Clara and Ira Sitts at their farm in Dutton. He met his wife Billie Lou Jensen at the neighboring farm and married her on March 4, 1951, in Dutton. They were married for 57 years until Billie's death in 2008.
Bob was active in the Dutton community. He was on the boards of the Farmers Mercantile, Dutton Lumber Yard and the Dutton Farmers Cooperative. He was part of a group of neighbors who bought the Dutton State Bank, where he served on the board from 1965 until 2019. He was instrumental in the formation and building of the Tri-County Water District in 1980.
He was commander of the Dutton American Legion Post 64 and member of the Masonic Order in Dutton, the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Choteau and the Elks in Great Falls.
The wider agricultural community and its success commanded his attention also. He was a member of the Montana Farmers Union and the Montana Grain Growers Association where he held several board positions and lobbied many years supporting the wheat check-off and other policies that benefited the ag community.
Bob ran successfully for the Montana House in 1972, and he served in Montana's only annual sessions from 1973 and 1974. He served as sergeant of arms the next session.
The U.S. State Department sent him to Poland after its release from Soviet influence; to teach Polish bankers agricultural financing and commodity lending because he was both a bank director and a farmer. As a side note, at that time all the bankers in Poland were women, as most men were in military service. The State Department also sent him to Kazakhstan to assess the potential of its farm collectives and the possible effects on the U.S. farm markets, including opportunities for investment.
Bob and Billie traveled widely in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. They went skiing in Utah, Colorado, Switzerland and Germany and birdwatching on the Orinoco River in the Amazon. They visited many island nations in the South Pacific, and the Panama Canal. Later, with his oldest grandkids they traveled to Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Australia and New Zealand In the fall, Bob could be found at his cabin in the Benchmark west of Augusta.
Friends, neighbors and all passersby found themselves with a drink in their hand at his fireside. As someone commented, "If you sat beside Bob over five minutes, you were no longer a stranger." Whether hunting for elk in Benchmark or moose and bear in Alaska, Bob understood that the companionship of his friends was more important than trophies, although he had plenty of those.
People and their needs were always first on his mind. Many families and businesses benefited from his quiet generosity. He was the champion of second and third chances.
His father, a coal miner, died when he was 3; leaving his mother to raise three boys before there was any sort of public assistance. He always remembered the generosity of Sand Coulee to his mother and that became a guiding principle in his life.
He is survived by his sons, Robert Jr. (Mitzi) Stephens of Augusta, Chris Stephens and Mark Stephens (partner Shell Nye) of Dutton; daughters, Andrea Swing of Manhattan and Sherry Stephens Pierson of Maine; grandchildren, Tyler and Amberly Stephens of Augusta and Kate Stephens of Dutton.
He was preceded in death by his wife; father-in-law, Chris Jensen; mother-in-law, Irene Jensen; sister-in-law, Jeannine Achenbach; half-brothers, John and Carl Angster; half-sister, Bertha Fry; brothers, Jim and Bill Stephens; and son-in-law, Doug Swing.
Memorials are suggested to the Dutton/Brady school lunch program, 101 Second St. N., Dutton, MT 59433 or the Dutton-Teton Public Library, 22 Main St. W., Dutton, MT 59433, or a charity of your passion.
