Grandpa Yule

Fifteen years ago to the day,  my grandpa, Ralph Yule, passed away. At just 9 years old, I still have some amazing memories of him. My favorite would have to be when he would play the accordion as I danced around my grandparent's house. He would play for hours and I would dance and listen the whole time. My all-time favorite song he played is called the Clarinet Polka. It's not a song that is played a lot, but when it is, my entire body wells up with floods of memories of him and I can't help but smile. 

I still remember the night he passed away. My parents had gone to a company Christmas party and my brother Nathan was playing the piano as the entertainment for it. I was in the shower when they got home and we were getting ready for bed. I was relaxing in the tub when everyone kept telling me to hurry. I got so aggravated. But I got out and was instantly in a bad mood. I got dressed and went out to the living room. That's where I saw my mom crying. I sat down knowing something was wrong and my dad proceeded to tell us what had happened. 

My grandpa had been diagnosed with cancer years before and it had finally taken him. My dad continued to tell us that he passed away approximately the same time my brother was playing the Mannheim Steamroller version of Stille Nacht. If you've never heard it before, it is an amazing song. It has also become one of my favorite Christmas songs. 

My grandpa was an avid kayaker and outdoorsman. After he passed away, the Missoulian wrote an amazing article about him. Here it is:

A kindly teacher, outdoor lover passes

Friends, family mourn death of Ralph Yule, who inspired all by example. Ralph Yule didn't do any preaching, except by his life and his example. "But boy, that was powerful," said Walt Hill, with whom Yule was a Boy Scout leader for nearly 25 years. Yule, who died Dec. 19, will be remembered at a memorial service at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3201 Bancroft in Missoula.

The memories, Hill said, are of a man of "deep wisdom, infinite patience and absolute kindness." He was a Scout leader who each summer took boys into the Mission Mountains -; along old Indian trails, to the top of peaks, to fields of wildflowers in miles-long meadows. He was a kayaker who built his own boats, and boats for others, and who ran the same nasty stretch of the Lochsa River every year on his birthday. When kayakers lost their takeout on the Alberton Gorge, he got them a new one -; through sheer stubborn persistence.

He was an accordion player who learned to play in Civilian Conservation Corps camps during the Depression, and continued to play at dances and in bands for the rest of his 80 years.

He took up telemark skiing at age 70, served on the Clinton School Board for years and built the Milltown Garage. For 12 years, he fended off the cancer that took his life.

"He was unsinkable," said John Salisbury, a friend and fellow kayaker. "He just had a buoyant nature. Part of that was stubbornness. Part of it was positive attitude and enthusiasm."

Born in Ray, N.D., on April 16, 1918, Yule made his first trips into the Rocky Mountains as a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He and his bride, Lola Liberty Osborn, moved to Missoula in 1947. Yule worked first as a foreman for Tucker Motors, then for Eino Wiemer's garage Milltown. In 1971, he built Milltown Garage.

Yule was known most for his love of the outdoors. "He knew it all: camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, skiing," said his son, Tom. "Every summer for 25 years, he'd take his Boy Scout troop mountaineering to the tops of the Mission Mountains -; six days, unsupported." Yule was the assistant Scoutmaster, the outdoors specialist. Hill was the Scoutmaster.

"Ralph knew how to get to places that nobody else did," Hill said. "Old Indian mushroom trails, unmarked cross-country treks. We saw reaches nobody else ever did. He was like a mountain goat scrambling over rocks."

Yule was at peace and ever-at-ease in the mountains. "He loved the wildflowers," Hill said. "In August, he would get into his garden patches in the Missions. There'd be square miles of flowers, and he'd have us sit right in the middle of them for lunch." "He looked for beauty."

Salisbury said he loved Yule's stories. "He knew all the legendary people in kayaking," Salisbury said. "And he knew all their stories, and all the rivers." He also knew how to get results. When kayakers lost their takeout spot on the Clark Fork River below Alberton Gorge, Yule went to work, talking to the railroad and power companies and other kayakers. Eventually, he negotiated a land sale and an access easement, and kayakers now use his takeout at Fish Creek -; they call it "Ralph's."

"Ralph's involvement led to a whole series of events, including the creation of the Missoula White Water Association and work by Fish, Wildlife and Parks to improve the put-in at Cyr and protection of the whole recreation corridor on the Gorge," Salisbury said. "He just went to work, and things started happening."

Yule didn't begin kayaking until he was 50, but his skill was known throughout the kayaking community. "He was a smart river runner," said Salisbury. "He was always friendly, and always willing to teach new boaters. And he was an innovator. He built his own boats, and his own backpacks."

"He's an unsung hero to a lot of folks out there," said Hill. "We'll miss him."