Murray Engebretson

Murray “Dave” Engebretson, 82, of Missoula, walked into Yeshua’s arms on December 10, 2025.

Born November 5, 1943, in Anaconda, Montana, Dave arrived with determination and was preloaded from heaven with future shenanigans. His parents, Carl and Bertha, moved the family from Anaconda to Missoula shortly after, where Dave would spend his early years learning how to charm the girls to teachers at Franklin Elementary and occasionally sneak an extra recess. He got away with a lot due to his dimples.

He left school in junior high to travel with his dad down to New Orleans to work construction. He figured he was a man of the world after that, and Missoula was just too small of a place to keep a man of the world down, so at age sixteen, following his brother’s examples, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He went to Boot Camp at MCRD San Diego, and upon graduating he was stationed at Camp Pendelton, followed by Iwakuni, Japan and Okinawa, where he finally shipped out to Vietnam, where he was severely wounded during Operation Double Eagle II. This was one of the first major turning points in his life. See this isn’t the first time he died, just the last time. In 1966, on a surgery table in a MASH hospital he beat the odds and was brought back to life by the surgeon’s skilled hands. He was transferred to Bremerton to the Naval Hospital to recuperate. During his time there, his mother, father, and sister would drive back and forth from Missoula to monitor his recovery. Dave returned to Missoula decorated and dented, but no one could ever claim he wasn’t a fighter.

While recovering in Missoula, while out with his brother Jim and their dates, he noticed a woman out on the dance floor. Well, both brothers were interested, and being brothers, they literally flipped a coin to see who was going to dance with her. That woman turned out to be his elementary school sweetheart, Nancy Nelson. Dave won the toss and, more importantly, won her heart. That dance turned into 59 years of marriage, a lifetime of love, and a partnership that could survive construction dust, railroad grease, and raising kids.

He was as good a man as they came. He welcomed her and her two children into his life with open arms, and a heart bursting with love and affection for them. With Responsibilities other than himself, Dave went to work. He had several different jobs around Missoula until he finally landed with Sletten Construction. This was a job with a mentor, Virgil Clark, who would change the course of his life yet again.

His career as a carpenter and master concrete finisher with Sletten Construction would see him help build the University of Montana Field House, Kent Avenue Post Office, Caras Park, Washington-Grizzly Stadium, UM Campus Quad, Main Post Office and Regional Distribution Postal Center in Billings and Coal Creek Station Power Plant near Washburn, North Dakota. Dave’s final job with Sletten took place in Helena, in 1977. When they finished the Post office there, he was offered a position as a supervisor in Las Vegas, Nevada. True to form, family came first.

In 1977 Dave and the family returned to Billings and started a new career as a Carman with Burlington Northern Railroad. He would work there for two years, eventually moving back into construction after BN shut their Laurel yards down. He stayed in construction, but in 1984, BN called again, and he took his talents on the road as Signal Maintainer. He did this until his youngest son left home. It didn’t take a couple of seconds for him and Nancy to decide it was time to move back home to Missoula. Dave always did what he had to provide for his family. After struggling to find work in Missoula, He and Nancy moved to Thompson Falls where they lived for two years. He took a position at the sawmill as a Boilerman. He enjoyed that job, and they imbedded themselves in the community and church. Thinking that was going to be the “last” move. But life threw them another curve ball, and they found themselves back in Missoula He went to work with Montana Rail Link as a Carman again, and this is where he stayed until retiring in 2005.

Family was Dave’s passion. He loved his children; He provided as good a life as he possibly could for them. He absolutely devoted himself to his grandchildren. He carted his grandkids all over the Northwest, into Canada and Alaska, introducing them to as much of life as possible. He taught the boys how fix cars, build things, hunt, fish, golf, hauled them to school events, and with his granddaughters he would have the girls stand on his feet and teach them how to dance, mostly to the Eagles, but any music would do for him. He loved to dance. He was a great dancer. He and Nancy frequently cleared the dance floor at different dinner clubs in Missoula and would tear the floor up to the ovations and cheers of the crowds. He loved music and would get lost in it. It took him to a world only he existed in, and he passed that love of music on to his grandchildren. He was young enough to enjoy most of his great grandchildren, even the ones that came when he was on the decline still lit his face up like a roman candle. He would beam and laugh with them. He loved his family with every fiber of his being.

One would think his first love would be trains. That wasn’t so. That provided a living. No, his aside from his family, his other passion in life was woodworking; he spent countless hours in his shop planning and working on gifts for family and friends and building thingamajigs to help him build those gifts for everyone. Really, he just loved to build and create, and he was a master. Some of his greatest accomplishments were doing the finish work on Missoula Industrialist, Dennis Washington’s, Personal Train, the Silver Cloud, and his private jet. He had interesting stories about how Mr. and Mrs. Washington would argue about how they wanted the train to look. He would say, “They would ask me what I thought. I just kept my mouth shut. No way I was gonna cross Phyllis”. Back in August, during his first of several trips to the hospital, Steve and Lisa brought a copy of Woodworking Magazine to him in the hospital. His eyes lit up, and he was as excited as a little kid, flipping through the pages picking out projects that he wanted to start. That was Dave.

It's hard to sum up such a phenomenal person and life in a few words. Those who knew Murray (Dave) understood this. He was a man among men; the last of a breed that is all but gone, and we, his family and friends will miss him intensely, he wasn’t perfect on earth, no man or woman is, but now he is made whole. There is no more pain and suffering, and you can bet he is dancing in heaven with his mom, daughter Sara and teaching his granddaughter Chelsea how to dance, but probably not to the Eagles. He has angels now.

Dave is survived by wife, Nancy; children, Stephen (Lisa) Engebretson, Leslie Engebretson, Brad (Lauretta) Engebretson; Grandchildren Jeremy Engebretson, Sara and Ryan Whipple, Hannah Engebretson; Rebecca Averill, Jennifer Lawrence, Melinda and Glen Hornberger, Jonathan Bennett; Swen Engebretson, David and Maggie Engebretson, Veronika Engebretson and her partner Dalton Buker; Morgan and Kyle Perez; and Great Grandchildren Victoria, Kaera, and Madelynn Averill; Julianna and Gabriel Lawrence; Harley, Eli, and Austain Hornberger; McKenna and Elliott Engebretson, Isaac Whipple, Levi and Remi Burlison, Mordecai and Cillian Perez, Odette and Julius Buker, and Freja Engebretson; and siblings Alta Pearson and Jim and Nancy Engebretson; He was preceded in death by his daughter Sara, granddaughter Chelsea Bennett, his parents, Carl and Bertha Engebretson; brothers Charles, Albert, George, Duane Engebretson, and sister Myrtle Blodgett.

A viewing will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday, December 22, 2025, at Garden City Funeral Home. A graveside service with military honors will follow at 1:00 p.m. at Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery, located at 1911 Tower Street, Missoula, Montana