Richard
“Dick” Allgood
May
20, 1944 – Feb. 22, 2020
By Joseph T. O’Connor EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
BIG
SKY – On Feb. 22 at 4:44 p.m. the Big Sky community lost one of its own.
Richard “Dick” Allgood died at his home in the Legion Villa apartments in
Bozeman after a brave battle with stage four lung cancer. He was 75.
The
time of day was a fitting one, said Allgood’s daughter Alisa. “That’s called
‘Angel time’ when the numbers line up,” she said.
A
former Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War and then a helicopter rescue pilot, Allgood has been a
staple of the Big Sky community since the late 1970s when he and Alisa began vacationing
here.
Allgood
lived in Florida after his service in the Air Force but decided to leave Miami
and a career in commercial real estate to move to Big Sky in 1992 after
Hurricane Andrew struck, leaving the seaside town—and the Allgood’s home—devastated.
“He
called me up at college and said, ‘I have a U-Haul packed and I’m moving to
Montana,’” Alisa said. “He was a really good teacher. He was a really good
father. He was unshakable and unwavering, loyal, confidant, friend, teacher. He
was always there to help you make good choices and help you learn to make
better ones.”
In
1993, a few months after arriving in Big Sky, Dick Allgood opened Allgood’s Bar
and Grill, which he ran for the next 18 years. After selling the business, now
Broken Spoke Bar and Grill, in 2011, Allgood had planned to retire. He visited
various businesses during that time, a hobby that earned him the nickname
“Drive-around Dick.”
“He
would drive to the bank on free cookie day, go hang out at the Conoco to talk
with people,” Alisa said. And he would repeat his favorite sayings: “He had
‘The multiple p’s’: Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance. He would say,
‘Kid, you gotta stay five miles ahead of the airplane.’”
After
earning the nickname, Dick began shouldering administrative work for Lynne
Anderson, owner of The Country Market in Big Sky Meadow Village. While he had a
sincere smile and is described as kind and generous by many community members,
he wouldn’t suffer fools, according to Alisa.
“He
could come across as kind of gruff, and he didn’t put up with putzes,” she
said. “But if you needed a hand or someone to talk to, he was there. It would
be his wish to not let the glitz and the glamor overrun everybody’s human
nature.”
Allgood,
a proud member of the University if Alabama’s Class of ’66, was active with Big
Sky’s local American Legion post since he moving to the area—he helped raise a
significant amount of money to help fund a veterans’ cemetery at Sunset Hills
Cemetery in Bozeman. The two-acre plot is near the Vietnam memorial on the
grounds.
For nearly 30 years
on Armed Forces Day—the third Saturday in May—the American Legion Big Sky Post
99 installs and refurbishes white crosses at all vehicle fatality sites on Lone
Mountain Trail and Highway 191, from the Yellowstone National Park boundary
north to the mouth of Gallatin Canyon. Allgood, the former adjutant for Post
99, participated in the annual white cross program, a national initiative for
the American Legion, which was founded in 1919 and has 2.2 million members. He will
be remembered for his altruistic nature, his toughness and his love for this
community.
“The first thing
that comes to me is he was someone who stood up for the community—whether at
Allgood’s or the American Legion or work for the Country Market—he seemed to
give back,” said Jeremy Harder, sixth through twelfth-grade technology teacher
at Big Sky School District who served with Allgood at Post 99. “On a personal
level he was a tough dude. I think it’s that kind-hearted, selfless thing
though [that I’ll remember].”
But the community
was what embodied Dick Allgood and Dick Allgood embraced that sense of
community.
“I think it always
makes you appreciate different things, people,” Allgood told EBS in 2018 after
undergoing emergency open-heart surgery. “I’m very thankful to the community
for the support given, granted, thoughts, wishes and prayers along the way.”
From Alisa Allgood’s perspective,
the Big Sky community has lost a longtime member and one who was a daily
reminder that we all must support one another.
“The
community lost … somebody who understood the undercurrent of Big Sky; how
people have to work together,” she said. “He is a constant reminder—take care
of each other: If your brother has a problem let’s figure it out together. It was
his hope that people would continue to take care of each other and not get lost
… Without that [sense] of community, there is no Big Sky.”
Dick Allgood is survived
by his daughter, Alisa, her son Wylie Allgood Tollefson, and her husband Tyler
Tollefson. A Celebration of Life will be held Friday,
Feb. 28, 4 p.m. at Big Sky Chapel, followed by a gathering at Buck’s T-4 Lodge.
