Robert Alexander "Bobby" Gardipee, 86, passed away due to natural causes at Northern Montana Hospital on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.  Wake services will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, July 29, 2024, and will continue until Bobby's funeral service, which will be at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, all at the Wathatau Center outside of Dodson.  Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.

Bobby was born on July 24, 1937, in a log home on the Rocky Boy's Reservation just outside of Box Elder, Montana, to Fred Gardipee, Sr., and Rose LaRoque.  He was raised in Rocky Boy and Harlem, and attended the Pierre South Dakota boarding school until the age of 12.  At that time, Bobby left school and began working on local farms.  After his farm hand days, he moved to Washington state, where Bobby worked in construction for many years.  There he worked on many construction projects, including the Seattle Kingdome and at the US Naval shipyards.  He eventually tired of city life, and moved to the Wenatchee Valley, where he became an orchard foreman for many years, retiring in 1999.

Bobby married Selma Matte in March of 2013, after long engagements from 1968 to 1977, and then 1999 until their marriage.  Bobby and Selma moved to the Yakima Valley in 1999, where he worked as a commercial painter, and in maintenance at the Yakama Nation after that.  He then retired a second time.  Recently, the couple returned to Montana where they made their home outside of Dodson.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Rose; brothers, Ben, Richard, Dan, Joel, Fred, and Tony Gardipee; and sister, June Hawbaker.

Bobby is survived by his wife, Selma Matte, of Dodson; stepson, Jerome Gentes of Palm Springs, CA; sisters, Rose Gardipee of Kansas and Mary Agnes Schleve of Sandpoint, ID; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.