Cut Bank, golf have been good to 105-year-old

On a recent snowy morning, Ernie Stomsvik’s mind turned to golf.

Stomsvik was born in 1909, a year when the military airplane made its debut, Guglielmo Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in wireless telegraphy, the polio virus was discovered, Sioux warrior Red Cloud died and singer Burl Ives was born (he died 20 years ago).

Stomsvik said with a laugh that the the biggest change in his long life was quitting smoking.

For less than a year now, Stomsvik has lived at Glacier Care Center, where he’s enjoyed the social aspect.

Stomsvik has a son, Jerry, in Butte, and a daughter, Andrea, in Seattle, as well as six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Though he’s called Cut Bank home since 1938, Stomsvik was born in Minnesota, the second of seven children.

Stomsvik worked for Montana Power and was a deputy bailiff, a job he took at age 81 and worked for nearly two decades.

Jerry Stomsvik, 80, said longevity is in his dad’s genes.

Stomsvik is a lifelong tease, patient and mellow, Jerry Stomsvik said.