Just Cremation

Arthur Brackebusch

Matthew 25:23: His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

Arthur Paul Brackebusch 99, of Missoula, went to meet his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on March 6, 2026.

Art was born on September 23, 1926 in Canistota, SD, to Fred and Frieda (Salomon) Brackebusch, a first generation American on his father’s side, second on his mother’s.  In 1930 his family moved to the rural area north of Bonners Ferry, ID.  They purchased a timbered plot of land and cleared it to make farm land, using the timber to build their home and out buildings. Growing up as the second oldest of six boys, Art learned the value of hard work.  At the age of 12 after performing his own chores on the family farm he worked at neighboring farms for $1 a day.  The money he earned went into the family coffers.  When he turned 15 he took a job with the US Forest Service doing general trail work, telephone line work, and even some firefighting work. It was at this time that he set a goal to someday work in fire research.

Art graduated from Bonners Ferry high school in 1944.  He (and each of his five brothers) won the distinguished Bausch & Lomb Science Award. Upon graduation he enlisted into the US Navy, but failed his physical when it was discovered that he had rheumatic fever. Unable to join the Navy, he recuperated at the family farm and then in the fall of 1945 he set off for Moscow, ID where he worked to put himself through college earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry in 1949. Upon completion of college he enlisted in the US Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. He received his papers, but before he could leave, the Bonners Ferry Draft Board informed him that he would be drafted into the US Army as a buck private.  When the Army discovered his Forest Service photo mapping experience, they pulled him out and put him in the 64th Engineer Base Topographic Battalion. In July of 1951 he shipped off to Tokyo, Japan where he served as a supervisor charting and making maps of Korea for the US Army. Upon his discharge in 1952 he returned to the family farm in Bonners Ferry.

In 1953 Art moved to Missoula for a job with the Lolo National Forest doing road design.  It was during this time that he met Arlene Hollinger, a student at the University of Montana, also working for the Lolo National Forest.  They were married on November 27, 1955.  Art worked in Drummond, MT for Tree Farmers Inc. When the company closed down their operations, he moved to Thompson Falls and took a job with the Thompson Falls Lumber Co.  He and Arlene welcomed their eldest daughter Lynn in 1957.

In 1959 Art and Arlene made their final move to Missoula where Art was hired by the USFS in Fire Research.  This was his dream job. A goal he had set 18 years previously in 1941 when he got his first taste of working on wildland fires. In 1960 he and Arlene welcomed their second daughter Beth. Over the next years, Art worked as a Project Scientist, Project Leader, and in 1964 he was named the Chief of the Northern Forest Fire Research Laboratory. In 1965, Art and Arlene welcomed their third and youngest daughter, Karen. During his 13 years as Chief, the Fire Lab would host scientists from all over the world—Russia, Germany, South America, and Australia. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and radio personality Paul Harvey were among dignitaries that visited during Art’s leadership. All came to see the cutting edge research that was being done in the area of fire research in Missoula, Montana.  Art retired from the USFS in 1979. In retirement, he accepted a job at North Idaho College in Coeur d’ Alene, ID heading their Forestry Tech Program. He taught and mentored his forestry students for two years. He then returned to the woods he loved. Art bid thinning jobs for the USFS and would rise in the morning and venture out with his daughter Karen, a sack lunch and the family dog, Cricket to spend long days in the forest, working to improve the health and welfare of the woods.

Art was a longtime member of the Missoula Exchange Club, the Western Forestry Association, the Intermountain Fire Research Council, the U of M Forestry School board of advisors, and the Grizzly Athletic Association.  Art’s service on the board for Missoula General Hospital included the planning and building of the Clark Fork Riverside Retirement Home. He advocated with the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce to utilize Missoula’s river frontage and highlight it as our “front” instead of using it as our “back.” In 2018, Art, along with his grandson Owen, attended the National Rifle Association’s National Convention in Dallas, TX. While there, Art was presented with the NRA’s Award for the oldest life member in attendance. Over the years he served for many years and in countless positions at First Lutheran Church. At the time of his death he was the longest living member of the congregation.  His greatest service to the church included three terms (12 years) on the Board for Higher Education for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  Art served as a member and ultimately as Chairman, overseeing the budgets, curriculum, appointments, and accreditation requirements for 16 colleges throughout the United States and Canada. As a final recognition by the church he was named Regent at Christ College Irvine, CA where he served for an additional six years.

Art was an avid hunter, fisherman, and builder/designer.  He designed and built a majority of the family home in Miller Creek.  He designed and built the first family cabin on Bull Lake. In his eighties, he designed and oversaw the remodel on this same cabin.  He even built a barn for his daughters’ horses and proudly displayed his 5B brand.  He enjoyed boating and spent countless hours driving the boat at Bull Lake to the enjoyment of his skiing, tubing, and knee boarding wife, daughters, and grandsons. He was a dedicated Green Bay Packer fan visiting Lambeau field for his 90th birthday.  Always a #1 fan of the Montana Grizzlies he attended football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, and even some track meets.  Art was a lifelong learner. When the computer first came out, he purchased one and read the manual teaching himself how to operate and navigate it. He loved taking online classes and always set goals for himself to learn something new.  He studied World History, Anatomy, Calculus, and as late as 2022 enrolled in an online course on Thermal Dynamics.
Art is survived by his wife Arlene, brothers Fred and Harold (Barbara), daughters Lynn (Michael), Beth (Dave), Karen (Greg), grandsons Owen (Kaleigh), Derek (Sonia), Dylan (Mary), and Kurt, great-grandchildren, Jack and Isabelle, Arlo and Vera , Reagan, Lucy and Piper, and numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Frieda Brackebusch, brothers Carl, Leonard and Albert.

Funeral services and the celebration of Art’s life with be held Friday, March 20, 2026 at 11:00 am at First Lutheran Church 2808 South Ave West, Missoula, MT.  Cremation services will be handled by Just Cremation.  For a full obituary visit justcremationmt.com

In lieu of flowers, donations and memorials can be made to Saint Labre Indian School Ashland, MT (www.stlabre.org) or Saint Jude Children’s Hospital (www.stjude.org).

Page Settings

Enter location name

Full Name

We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and analyze site traffic.
<privacyLink>Privacy Policy</privacyLink>.

<firstParagraph>We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience.</secondParagraph>

<firstParagraph>We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>The cookies that are categorized as 'Necessary' are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.</secondParagraph>

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

Analytics

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

Functional

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

Necessary

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Performance

Customize Cookie Preferences

Black Friday Offering

Honor Their Memory

- Including QR Memorial Plaques, Memorial Trees and our Keeper Plus and Concierge Memorial Plans

Now offering KeeperQR Plaques

New Message

The following files could not be uploaded

Ways you can honor {memorialName}'s memory:

Donation Link

Upcoming Event

Featured Mementos

Title

A message title is required. Please update.

Welcome Message

Select an item to highlight

Add a highlighted item

Customize which items you’d like to highlight on the memorial

Create Account

Become a Keeper

As a free {brandName} user, you will only be able to make 5 photos and videos public.

As a free {brandName} user, only the first five (5) Mementos are visible to page visitors. You can change which Mementos are public by dragging and dropping a photo or video to one of the first five positions. Upgrading to {brandName} Plus will make all 10 Mementos selected visible to the public.

All Mementos

This option is only available to Keeper Plus users.

To allow yourself and the rest of the community to view all images and videos, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of these mementos, upgrade your account to Keeper Plus.

This memento is not visible to visitors

Your community has posted {itemCount} more pictures and videos that honor {firstName}'s memory. To view them all, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of each, this account will need to upgrade to Keeper Plus.

View all images and videos with Keeper Plus

Our Obituary Assistant helps you craft a meaningful life story in minutes. Review and edit every detail, and unlock more features with Keeper Plus.

Obituary Assistant

Spend as much time as you need working on your Memorial page before it is visible to the public, and much more, when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Save Page as Draft

Create unlimited event pages and unlock a suite of powerful features to help you seamlessly coordinate event details, invites, and more when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Event

Create a full picture of your loved one’s community and add unlimited family and friends to Loved Ones when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Loved One

Create unlimited Memorials — and unlock unlimited images and videos, event pages, and advanced privacy settings — to help you keep memories alive when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Memorial Page

Add unlimited Stories to highlight the all the things that made your loved one unique, from milestones, images, albums, documents, locations, and much more.

Highlight Stories

Upgrading to Keeper Plus means you can add additional Keepers to help you gather Mementos and tributes, approve content, build out a family tree, and tell {firstName}' story on Keeper.

Invite Keepers with Keeper Plus

Upload and display unlimited photos and videos, use unlimited Story templates to highlight key moments, and allow friends and family to download their own copies when you upgrade to Keeper Plus. 

Better Mementos with Keeper Plus

To access memorial related configurations that control the display of the banner upgrade to Keeper Plus.

This configuration  is not available on your current plan

Create a meaningful link path to add a personal touch to {firstName}'s memorial.

Custom Memorial link

Gift Messages

SENDING AS A GIFT?

Cart

MEMORIAL TREE PLANTED

BEES PROTECTED

PLASTIC RECYCLED

CLEAN WATER

This will permanently delete your account. The business account, and business page will not be deleted. To deactivate your account, there must be another admin user assigned to your organization.

Are you sure you want to deactivate this account?

Organization name

Your name

To permanently remove this item, select Remove. To keep this item, select Cancel.

You have selected to delete {count} items from the Mementos Library. In doing so, these items will be permanently deleted from your library.  Do you wish to continue?

Thank you for your submission. All submissions are reviewed and must be approved before they appear on the page.

Thank you for you submission.

Web URL

Create a full picture of your community by creating individual Memorial pages for your family members, friends, and more.

Highlight the important people in {name}'s life by adding them as a Loved One. You can add someone via their {brandName} Memorial or Living Memorial page, or add their information manually.

Enter this Loved One’s email to let them know you have added them.

Add Loved One

You can only add an image for your Loved one by upgrading to Keeper Plus or creating a Memorial page for a Loved One that has passed away.

This is where the descripton will appear.

Add up to 50 photos and/or videos to create an album of a specific moment in {firstName}’s life. You’ll be able to reorder files and add captions to each file after you save.

Enter an album title

This is the album title

How would you name this album?

Album title

Enter album title

Group title (optional)

Used to mention your loved one throughout the memorial.

To avoid losing the previously generated text, we recommend copying and pasting the text to a secure location. If you wish to save the text, close this window, and copy the text to a secure location. If you are ready to generate a new version of your text, select the ‘Generate Story’ button.

Your current text will be removed

With just a few details from you, our AI-powered writing tool can draft a personalized and meaningful life story in a click.

The Obituary Assistant will take all the content you add to craft the perfect obituary. For the best possible results, please make sure all sections are completely filled out before generating.

Not displayed - used for your notifications only.

Used to display your relationship to {firstName}

Name

Who is this memorial for?

Use our Story templates to highlight a memory or event by adding unique details and a special layout.

New Offering

Create a video slideshow in minutes

Introducing Tribute Videos

Transform your profile page into a Living Memorial to start preserving your own legacy with photos, videos, and more. You can choose to keep your Living Memorial hidden until you’re ready to publish. Have more questions?

Create a Document Story

Enter a document title

Edit a Document Story

Upload an important document that signifies a moment in {firstName}’s life. This will display on your Memorial, so please don’t upload a death certificate, Social Security card, or anything containing sensitive information.

Document Story

What does this document represent?

We're getting your Mementos ready for download in a secure .zip folder, but it may take some time depending on your internet speed and file sizes. You'll need to stay on the site while this happens, so please don't leave mykeeper.com! (You're welcome to navigate away from this page and do other things on the site, as long as it's on mykeeper.com.)

We're getting your Mementos ready for download in a secure .zip folder, but it may take some time depending on your internet speed and file sizes. You'll need to stay on the site while this happens, so please don't leave our website.

Preparing your download

Change the name of this album in the field below

Edit the album title

You are creating and/or updating an event in the past.  If this was done in error, cancel and review your changes. 

Event is in the Past

Create an event page to coordinate a gathering in honor of {username}

To permanently remove this event and all corresponding data, select Delete. This cannot be undone.

Do you want to remove this event?

Share a link for guests to access a Virtual or Live Streamed Event

Share the event location to provide guests with directions

Choose if anyone on the internet can see event settings and RSVP options.

Only those with this password can access the event

Event privacy

Event RSVP

Choose if anyone on the internet can see who has RSVP'd to the event.

Guestlist privacy

Describe the event, including dress code, requests, or other important details

Enter important personal and family events like the birth of a child, a marriage, and more.

Select the <star>star icon</star> on a photo or video to display it in the Featured Mementos Section on the Memorial page. You can feature between 3 and 10 items.

Why are you flagging this?

By clicking subscribe below, you will receive emails containing information on any updates or additions that are made to this memorial page.

By clicking unsubscribe below, you will no longer receive emails containing information on any updates or additions that are made to this memorial page.

By clicking subscribe below, you will receive email reminders for upcoming events containing the event details - 72hrs prior to the event occurring for {username}’s Memorial.

By clicking unsubscribe below, you will no longer receive email reminders for upcoming events containing the event details - 72hrs prior to the event occurring for {username}’s Memorial.

By clicking subscribe below, you will receive emails containing information on the most recent memorials added to {brandName}.

By clicking unsubscribe below, you will no longer receive emails containing information on the most recent memorials added to {brandName}.

Welcome back, {name}

Welcome to {name}

Add a special touch to a memorial by including a beautiful emblem.

Story Title

What would you like to call this storyline?

Need examples? Try "{firstName}'s Life at University" or "A Lifelong Learner."

Add Interests or Milestones

Tell us about {name}'s life

Highlight the important people in {firstName}’s life by adding family members, friends, and more as Loved Ones. To get started, simply add existing {brandName} users and Memorial pages as Loved Ones, or add them manually by entering some basic information.

Section title

Add a map

Add markers to significant places, landmarks, cities, and other locations to create a personalized map that tells part of {firstName}’s life story.

Add a Map Story

What would you like to call this map?

Map Story

Enter a map title

Need ideas? Try something like “Places {firstName} Called Home” or “Favorite Vacation Spots”

Add a memento story

Add up to 100 photos and videos at once to your Memorial. You'll be able to add details, or feature as Stories later, if you like.

Add Mementos

Add Title or Text Story

Mementos are uploaded photos and videos that other users can like and comment on. If you'd like to highlight one of these and tell its story, you can transform them into Stories.

Updating your biography

A consolidated view of all the ways someone can honor the memory of your loved one (send flowers, donations, etc.).

Banner

This option allows users to customize the visual appearance of the memorial page by removing the existing Keeper logo from the memorial page. This is particularly useful for those who prefer a more personalized look for the page.

Remove Keeper Logo

Memorial Page Configurations

Allows visitors to the memorial page to purchase a tree in honor of your loved one’s memory.

Purchase a Tree

Allows you to show or hide the “Send Gift Basket” button in the memorial page banner, letting you choose how others can honor your loved one’s memory

Send Gift Basket

Allows visitors to the memorial page to send flowers or make donations in honor of your loved one’s memory.

Send Flowers

Sympathy Gifts

This option allows admin/editors the ability to customize the visual appearance of the memorial page by showing or hiding the display of  “Sympathy Gift Ideas” on the memorial page. This is particularly useful in assisting families who prefer a more personalized look for the page.

Memorial Configurations

Only you can see this page and all its content.

Replace the current background with one that feels right for the memorial.

We couldn’t use this photo. Try a different one.

Memorial Settings

Enhance portrait

Memorial Keepers

This page and all its content is now visible according to your privacy settings.

If added as a Keeper, you'll be able to manage and edit {keeped}’s profile

Request Keeper Access

Send a message to {name}

Check your inbox

The information you have entered will be lost if you close this window.

Are you sure you want to close this window?

Select ‘Submit Obituary’ to complete and publish this obituary, or select ‘Keep Editing’ to include additional information in the obituary.

Arthur Paul Brackebusch

Tell us about Arthur Brackebusch's life

Add Mementos

Tell us about Arthur Brackebusch's life

Add Mementos