Accidental Shooting of Rod Oelke – article by Steve Smith
Accidental Shooting of Rod Oelke
Rod Oelke of Missoula recently passed away. He was born in Missoula in 1942, the son of Bennie and Martha Heinle Oelke. He attended Franklin grade school in Missoula and graduated from Missoula County High School in 1960. He owned and operated Culbertson Steel Manufacturing in Missoula for a time. He was a member of the MCHS Golden “M” Club.
Rod was the incredible survivor of a tragic incident in 1970 when he was accidently shot while talking to his wife from a public phone booth in Missoula. He suffered many months of difficult recovery in hospitals in Missoula and Spokane. As Rod’s obituary states he had to “rewrite” his future. This he did with strength and courage, while staying remarkably upbeat.
Below is Rod’s Missoulian obituary (September 23, 2016) as well as an article by The Missoulian’s Steve Smith from The Montana Standard newspaper that appeared on October 24, 1971.
MISSOULA – Rod Oelke, 74, passed away in the early hours on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula surrounded by his wife and several of his family members. Rod was born on Jan. 3, 1942, to Bennie and Martha Heinle Oelke in Missoula.
He attended Franklin Grade School and graduated from Missoula County High School in 1960. He was active in football and track and was a proud member of the Missoula County High School Golden “M” Club. After high school he furthered his education, attending Northern Montana College in Havre, Rapid City School of Mines and the University of Montana.
On Oct. 11, 1975, Rod married Kathy Alsaker. With this union their family included one son and three daughters.
Rod worked for Anaconda Forest Products and then owned and managed Culbertson Steel Manufacturing, Inc. In the late ’80s, he continued his work with steel manufacturing across the Pacific Northwest. He started working for Missoula County Public Schools in 1992 as the facilities manager until his retirement. After retirement he and Kathy traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, D.C., other locations on the East Coast, and spent time visiting family and friends.
When he was 27 years old he spent more than four continuous months in hospitals in Missoula and Spokane to overcome an injury. He was determined to rewrite his future. Many who knew Rod never saw him with limitations. This strength is what defined Rod. As the years progressed and his health began to decline as a result of his injuries, he stayed strong, many not knowing of his struggles.
Rod was a sports fan, loved the Steelers as long as they were winning. He enjoyed playing golf, and teaching his children and grandchildren about sports, and pertinent life skills. From mowing lawns, swinging a hammer, car maintenance, raising cattle with his dad, and drawing house plans, he was always the student, teacher and mentor. He was proud of the family home they built in 1980 with help from family members. Rod silently shared his knowledge by example. He volunteered to help build a house for teachers in Hawaii, and worked on Big Sky High School’s original football stadium.
Rod enjoyed gatherings with family and friends, visiting and telling stories, sharing memories, lunch on Friday with the Missoula Business Builders, and weekly lunch and dinners with friends.
Rod was preceded in death by his parents and his father-in-law Harry Alsaker. Survivors include his loving wife Kathy; children and grandchildren, Brian and Reyna Oelke, of Redmond, Washington, children Libby, Michael and Kevin; Sheryl and Carl Stevenson of SeaTac, Washington, children, Jaden, Nolen, Brennan and Julianne; Lori and Sid Seay of Polson, children KC and Shawna McDonald of Kalispell, son Kason; Kyla and Tommy Jaeger of Polson, children Kendyl, Blane and Rhett; Kaitlyn and Brendon Miller of Kalispell, children Kamryn and Kynlee; Kody McDonald and his fiancé Becky Fairchild of Great Falls; Rene’ and Pete Nazelrod of Missoula, children Derrek and Lexa. Rod’s sister Jan and Mike Lovec of Baker, children Mike Menger and fiancé Mindi Murnion of Baker and their daughter Adison; and Stacy and Kelly Kinsey of Billings, children Sloan and Briggs. A loving mother-in-law, Wanda Alsaker and special brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Laura Alsaker, their daughter Kim and Jim Lucostic, their children Kelsey and Seamus Lucostic, and numerous cousins.
A graveside service will be at the Missoula Cemetery, 2000 Cemetery Road, Friday, Sept. 30, at 9:30 a.m. and a memorial service at 11 a.m. at Bethel Community Church, 1601 S. Sixth St. W., followed by a lunch reception.
The family would like to extend appreciation to Rod’s doctors, Dr. Michael Caldwell, Dr. Sarah Scott, Dr. Ashley Mays, Heidi Meierbachtol, and the doctors and nurses of St. Patrick’s ICU Unit.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Providence Montana Health Foundation, 500 West Broadway, Missoula, MT 59801. Please specify either The International Heart Institute of Montana or Montana Cancer Center, or Bethel Community Church.
A hunting rifle bullet nearly killed Rod Oelke
By Steve Smith
Missoula – A year ago Saturday at about 6:30 p.m., Rod Oelke was talking to his wife from a public telephone booth in the 1300 block of 3rd. Street. He heard a terrific boom and was jolted by what must have felt like a thunderbolt.
So severe was the blow that he thought a power line had fallen on the booth and that he had been electrocuted. He crumpled against the door, which yielded, and fell on his back outside. Then, pulling himself over the blacktop, he noticed the shattered front door windows of his car and a broken window of the phone booth. He realized then he had been shot.
Now, a year and a day and more than $30,000 later, his mid-section laced together with stitch-like stainless steel loops, his spleen, left kidney, and parts of his colon, and pancreas gone, Oelke is up and around and looking at life from a different slant.
He carries numerous bullet fragments in his body, is about 45 pounds lighter, leans on an aluminum cane and almost always is in pain. But he smiles a lot and says he’s thankful to be alive.
Oelke, 29 and father of two, remembers the night of Oct. 23, 1970, well. Employed at the time by Mill Supply Co. he had stopped to call his wife and tell her he was returning to work and would be late getting home.
“I thought I had been electrocuted because the bullet shot what seemed electricity down my left leg,” Oelke said. “When I finally got things clear in my mind . . . I decided to just take it calm and relax to the extent I could.
“I knew it had to be a big bullet . . . . when I saw the bullet had gone through three pieces of glass I knew it came from a high-powered rifle. A .22 would have mushed out before it got there.”
The bullet was from a .30-06 rifle fired accidently by 21-year-old Donald Ludwig, who told police he had been looking through the rifle’s scope some 75 yards away on the north side of Third Street. Oelke still has never met Ludwig.
A nearby resident hearing Oelke’s calls for help, called police and an ambulance. Soon after arriving at St. Patrick Hospital, Oelke passed out. At that point, Drs. John O. Kildow and Elmer K. George began emergency surgery.
Oelke’s next stop was Spokane’s Sacred Heart Hospital, where he was flown Nov. 4. His left kidney had been removed the night of the shooting and the right had begun to fail. So, for 33 days, approximately 12 hours a day, he was coupled to a kidney machine. Although it diminished as his body functions improved, the cost of the machine at first was estimated at $250 a day.
By Christmas, Oelke was on the machine only twice a week.
About the middle of December, however, he had begun to experience periods of semi-consciousness and high temperatures. Doctors had performed an exploratory operation and found he had an abscessed intestine. Repairing this, they also performed a colostomy for waste removal.
“They had cut me open so many times that they just clamped the cut shut rather than sew it up,” Oelke said. “Most of the time I was out of it and didn’t know what had happened or was happening.”
Oelke wanted to be in Missoula for Christmas but his doctors were skeptical. On Jan. 2, however, they released him. Two days before, on New Year’s Eve, he had taken his first halting steps – “six Giant steps, and painful ones, with people on both sides of me” – since the accident.
“On a per hour basis, the ambulance trip from the hospital to the airport in Spokane cost me much more than the charter plane ride to Missoula,” Oelke said, explaining that the 10 – or 15 – minute ambulance ride cost $48 in comparison to the $174 plane fare.
Oelke was taken directly to Missoula Community Hospital, where he remained until Feb. 11. When therapist Nancey Solander picked him up like a “little kid”, stepped on the scale with him, deducted her own weight and informed him he checked in at 103 pounds (he had weighed 185), he realized where he stood.
“It hit me then,” he said. “I knew I had a long way to go to get well.”
Oelke began therapy, working out in the morning and late in the afternoon. He learned how to turn by himself in bed and then tackled the problem of walking, progressing through a wheelchair, parallel bars, a walker, crutches and, finally, a cane, which he began using about mid-April.
On Feb. 11, Oelke went home, continuing his therapy at the Missoula Crippled Children’s and Adult Rehabilitation Center.
“One of the things that kept me going the entire time was knowing that my legs were all right and I would walk again some day,” Oelke said.
Oelke still faced the prospect of more operations in mid-July to restore normal body functions.
“That was no fun at all,” he said. “It took four days to get prepared . . . and I was on intravenouses and hypos for three days.”
After the operations Oelke contracted another infection, which confined him to the hospital for three extra days. After his release, he was attempting to close a window and broke open his incision, causing additional infection and drainage.
For Rod Oelke, the future is something of a question mark, although he faces it with apparent eagerness. He attended the University of Montana spring quarter to take an economics class, primarily “to occupy my time and mind,” but also to gain some managerial education.
Simultaneously, he is investigating future employment, as well as ways to recoup his more than $30,000 in expenses.
Oelke had been active in sports, and while doctors have tried to give him maximum leeway in his activities, he is careful. He hopes to golf next summer but has given up horseback riding, explaining he can’t move fast enough to avoid trouble.
“Periodically, I’ll do something I regret,” he said. “I walked up to the second floor of Main Hall and it took me three weeks to recover. I felt like I’d blown a gasket but actually I was pulling some of these stitches. I’ve seen my X-rays and I know what I look like inside. It’s like a Chrismtas tree.”
During his ordeal, Oelke has found friends he never knew he had. Among them are members of Missoula’s Zonta Club, who initiated a fund drive in his behalf; workers at White Pine Sash Co., who donated numerous pints of blood; workers at Anaconda Forest Products in Bonner, who took up collections, and clergymen and members of various local churches.
“This is where you screen out the people who are really with you,” Oelke said, adding that one woman from Ovando had a letter returned to her four times before getting it to him through his aunt and uncle.
Some of Oelke’s thoughts as he continues to recover:
– “I sincerely feel we have some really fine doctors in this town. They’re a bunch of aces as far as I’m concerned.
– “I try to avoid thinking any bitter thoughts about what happened. I try to think of it as an accident. Why this happened to me I’m not sure, but accidents do happen . . . . I have to do the best I can with what I have and just be thankful I’m still alive . . . .
– “I see things more, mainly because I’m slowed down. I think people are going a little too fast all the time and have too many things on their minds. I enjoy the mountains and trees and the spring and the fall. It’s the little things like this that are most interesting now . . .
– “A firearm is the most hazardous piece of equipment a human can possess . . . . I think that our laws regarding accidental shootings lack in comparison to many other states . . . A person is forced to have liability insurance with a car, but not so with guns. If the person who shoots you has no insurance, you’re stuck . . . . If I do nothing else, it would please me no end to find some way, possibly through the legislature, of preventing this from happening to somebody else. Then I would feel that I’d been worth my salt here.”
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