Sitting down with Dick and Jane Solberg, who have been married for 71 years, was like stepping back in time in their home on Whitefish Lake. Their love and conviviality were present during the two-hour-plus interview. Jane, at 90, is quick-witted with a contagious laugh, and Dick, at 93, is sharp as a tack, whose quiet demeanor speaks volumes.
Jane reminisced that their property was formerly Glenwood Park, once a summer resort with rustic cabins for people looking to explore Whitefish. Her parents bought the property from the Baker family when Jane was in 6th grade. She and her family lived in a two-bedroom cabin when they first settled in Whitefish in 1946.
“It was tough,” Jane said.
Her living conditions were not comfortable like the lakefront home they live in now. The cabin did not have running water; she had to use an outhouse. Jane grew up when Whitefish was a farming and lumber town, not the trendy ski town it is today. The current Muldown Junior High was the entire school district, including the elementary grades and high school.
“Boys fit in, girls didn’t fit in,” Jane shared when talking about the social scene in Whitefish in the mid-40s, but that didn’t stop her from skiing with boys. Her tough and ambitious spirit made her a fierce competitor on the slopes.
On December 14, 1947, Jane and her brother John Seely were the first to take the paid ride up on the T-bar on Big Mountain Ski Resort’s opening day. Jane started skiing regularly in her freshman year of high school and under the direction of Lloyd “Mully” Muldown, teacher and later superintendent of Whitefish schools, Jane and a group of kids started a racing team in Whitefish.
Jane also had another coach, Austrian ski legend Toni Matt, who knew how to push her to win.
“Matt would say to me right before a race, ‘You think you can beat that time?’”
Matt stoked the fire in Jane before races, and she went on to win state in downhill skiing her junior year.
Yes, this is THE Toni Matt, the same one who has a ski run named after him on Whitefish Mountain.
Although Dick and Jane did not ski Big Mountain together, they became acquainted through the Junior Olympics program.
“We were friends first. We dated other people,” Jane said.
Joyce Carstensen, Jane’s cousin, was on the University of Montana ski team with Dick, who was a senior in college. She thought Dick would be perfect for Jane, so she invited Jane to a party knowing Dick would be in attendance. Turns out, Jane’s cousin was onto something.
“We were having all this fun, so we decided to get married.” Jane said.
On June 6, 1954, Dick and Jane drove an hour to Superior, Montana to be married by the Justice of the Peace.
“We needed another witness, so the Justice of the Peace woke up his wife. She still had curlers in her hair and a bathrobe on,” Jane grinned. “I was not 18, but close enough.”
The morning after their elopement, Jane called her mother to tell her the happy news, and while most parents might be upset, Jane’s parents took it in stride and celebrated with the happy couple that night.
Dick graduated from UM in June 1954, and they packed up their things to move to Pullman, Washington, where Dick got his master’s degree at Washington State University. Living in married student housing, Jane settled into domestic life while Dick pursued his education. They welcomed a baby girl, Jenanne, in September 1955.
The family of three moved from Washington to Long Beach, California, for Dick to get his PhD in Botany from UCLA.
“I sent Dick off to find some place to live. It was a busy place,” Jane said waving her hands to indicate the chaos of city life.
While in Los Angeles, Dick and Jane had two more children before moving back to Missoula in the summer of 1961 for Dick to start as a professor in the botany department at UM. They had their fourth child in Missoula.
“Both mom and dad taught ski lessons for many, many years at Snow Bowl in Missoula,” said their daughter Jenanne.
When Jenanne graduated from high school, Jane went back to school to finish her lifelong dream of getting a college education.
“I have graduate degrees in audiology and speech pathology,” Jane said.
When all of Jane’s children left the nest, Jane went to work for the state of Montana, visiting seven different counties to offer speech and language clinics to school-aged children, and ensuring each one received an appropriate education.
Meanwhile, Dick continued to work for the University of Montana as a dean and academic vice president. He was Director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) in Yellow Bay, where he gathered grants for high school biology teachers, students, and faculty to come and study ecology, water management, and biodiversity.
Dick and his family spent ten summers at FLBS alongside students and faculty. Jane helped with the cooking, and the kids did laundry.
“There is a Solberg Cabin at the biological station right next to the commissary,” Dick said.
In 1987, Dick retired from the University of Montana.
“Jane and I travelled after I retired,” Dick said.
Not only did Dick and Jane travel a lot, but they made sure to have family gatherings as often as possible. Travelling often and keeping these family connections close is key to their more than seven decades of marriage.
“We are maintaining a connection to generations before and generations to come. We ended up with four really nice kids and ten grandchildren,” Jane said with a smile.
"We were having all this fun, so we decided to get married."
"We are maintaining a connection to generations before and generations to come. We ended up with four really nice kids and ten grandchildren."