Family, Lewistown alumni mourn Borgreen's death

When authorities identified Jim Borgreen as the man who died in a single-vehicle crash near Monarch on Sunday, the news of a beloved artist and educator passing away was viewed by more than 7,000 people and shared more than 100 times off of the Tribune's Facebook page.

But no one in Borgreen's immediate family was surprised by this, given his 34-year career teaching art and an appreciation of nature to generations of Lewistown kids who attended Fergus High School.

"He had a compassion for kids," said his son Mike Borgreen, who was once a student in his dad's art class. "What we would see on a daily basis is kids gravitating toward him that were the least like him."

Borgreen, 65, died in a single-vehicle crash Sunday morning. Authorities with the Montana Highway Patrol believe he had some sort of medical problem that caused him to crash into a tree. The family is holding his funeral services in the performing arts center at Fergus High School at 1 p.m. Monday because they know a lot of people are going to attend.

His wife, LaVonne Borgreen, who is also a retired teacher from Fergus High School, said her husband taught all sorts of artistic techniques to his students — everything from pottery to photography to jewelry making. An avid outdoorsman, Borgreen even taught his students taxidermy.

"If he didn't know how, he'd teach himself and then he'd teach the kids," LaVonne said.

Jim Borgreen also played a critical role during one of the darkest days at Fergus High School, according to his family.

In December 1986, Kristofer Hans came to school intent on shooting his teacher for a failing grade. Instead, he shot and killed a substitute teacher, Henrietta Smith, and fired several other shots, one of which hit Vice Principal John Moffatt.

It was Borgreen who pulled Moffatt into his classroom and away from the gunman and started moving his students from his classroom to the attached pottery room and out the window to safety.

Molly Beck said her dad never accepted any praise for what he did.

"I think he thought it just needed to be done," she said. "He always just did what needed to be done in hard situations."

Jim Borgreen's siblings said their brother's artistic talents, which have been on display at regional western art shows for years, developed early as his family grew up in Great Falls and spent all of their free time in the woods of the Little Belt Mountains surrounded by all sorts of creatures.

John Borgreen and Judy (Borgreen) Marxer said their dad and their uncle built the Borgreen family cabin just off of Hughesville Road in 1936 south of Monarch. The one-room cabin became the family oasis away from their home on Smelter Hill.

"It was this sense of family at the cabin. Jimmy took to that," John said. "That's where he was formed as a man. I think it's why he was just a wonderful teacher."

From the time he could hold a pencil, Marxer said her brother was drawing sketches of wildlife. She still has a sketch he drew when he was probably 5 years old. She used some of her baby-sitting money to pay for his art lessons.

As he continued to grow and graduate from college with a degree in art education, Borgreen's artistic talents expanded and so did his passion for hunting — sometimes meticulously so, according to his kids. Hunting trips with their dad were not for social time.

"You better have your water bottle on your hip and a candy bar in your pocket," Beck said.

"And you better unwrap it quietly," Mike chimed in.

Mike works in the wildlife biology field now and said his dad, who once considered a career in wildlife biology, probably knows more about the birds of Montana than some of the experts. Molly thinks that's because of how many times her dad drew and painted them.

"He knows how many feathers are on the wings of a bird," Molly said.

While Borgreen may have been meticulous about his hunting and his artwork — he was down at the cabin this weekend scoping out hunting locations after pulling his first moose tag ever — his family said he could always execute a good practical joke.

Marxer said when her son was a teenager, his Uncle Jim took out a classified advertisement giving away his nephew's golf clubs. His nephew thought he'd retaliate by bringing his uncle of box of cream-filled doughnuts — with anchovies.

"Jim, being the suspicious person that he was, made his children try them first," Marxer said.

"I ate an anchovy cream-filled doughnut," Molly said.

Laughter has been a comfort to this tight-knit family as they've dealt with the sudden loss of their father, husband, brother and grandpa. So have the words of many of his former students who have posted comments on Facebook.

"He was my absolute favorite teacher," wrote Melissa Thompson. "Most patient man, teacher and mentor I've ever met."

"Jim Borgreen was an inspiration ... and highly regarded as a excellent teacher and mentor to so very many students," Diane Mane Brosseau wrote. "A wonderful human being that impacted and touched our own kids."

The sentiments have always rang true for the Borgreen family.

""Everything that (Jim) was doing, he was always teaching," his brother John said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_KCates.