Chester "Wally" Hansen Jr.

1942 - 2025

Chester "Wally" Hansen Jr. transcended this life on October 15, 2025, sitting naturally at his kitchen table in Bozeman, MT, a letter from the previous day's mail still in hand. His revels ended in the architecturally masterful home he had designed and built with the loving companionship of his earlier deceased spouse, Mary Langan-Hansen. Wally's lightening ascendance was as unexpected as it was peaceful, and he will be remembered as a loving, contemplative and kind soul to the many who have known and admired him throughout his 83 years.

Wally was born in Portland, OR on August 5, 1942, to Frances & Chet Hansen, during the time his father worked in the WWII Swan Island shipyards on the Willamette River. At the close of the Second World War, the family moved to Lewistown, eventually settling in Great Falls, where Wally and his little sister Jan were raised as Montanans.

Growing up in the 50's, Wally participated in many sports, high school football becoming his favorite. From childhood on, he also showed great aptitude in art and music, singing in advanced choral groups and performing in Great Falls High School annual musical productions until graduation in 1960.

After high school he enrolled in Montana State College (MSU) majoring in Architecture in the college's Arts & Architecture program. Later, in 1964 while taking a break from school, Wally received a draft notice and dutifully reported to the Great Falls U.S. Marines Corps recruiting office, saying, "if I must go to Vietnam, I'll go with the toughest I can." After boot camp at MCB, Camp Pendleton, CA he transferred to the Communications Electrical School, Radio Engineer and Radar Technician training, and upon graduation shipped out to Vietnam with H&S Co, 2nd Battalion, 27th Marine, 5th Marine Division. Wally survived his Southeast Asia tour of duty and returned to the U.S. in 1966, for release from active duty and eventual honorable discharge with the rank of Corporal, having been awarded the National Defense Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Ribbon. By early 1967 he was back in MT with a decidedly new-found appreciation of Eastern culture and perspective.

Relocating to Bozeman, he continued studies in the Bachelor of Architecture program at MSU, where he met the love inspiration of his life, Mary Langan. They remained inseparable for the next 48 years - until she predeceased him in 2014 - long after they declared their marriage in February 1994, in Livingston, MT.

Student Wally continued his education while helping to raise and guide Mary's sons, Mark Christopher, Jeffrey, and Colter, as if they were his own. His mentors included prestigious instructors like John DeHaas, Jim Gough and Hugo Eck, who along with his wife Dorothy, became close family friends. After earning a Bachelor of Architecture Degree, which MSU elevated to a Master's Degree in 1971 because of the rigors of the earlier program, Wally went on to establish his own Architecture firm, Architectonics. The firm later became known as C.W. Hansen Architect, operating in downtown Bozeman until the mid 90's. Much of his design work was inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, coupled with his increasing respect for the "doing more with less" philosophy of futurist architect and geodesic dome designer, Buckminster Fuller.

Wally also became enthused about national and local politics, and in the late 70's ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Gallatin County Commission. Still, he continued advocating for his political ideas until his passing. In 1979, Wally and Mary moved to Rocker on the Clark Fork, just outside Butte, MT where he accepted a job at The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). At NCAT, he worked closely with his college architecture buddy, Robert "OXO" Corbett. Post NCAT, the pair formed the association Superinsulation Designs, where they generated super-insulated building plans to help middle income homeowners achieve economic efficiency while conserving energy. Their innovative designs contributed to the construction of super-insulated buildings across the country.

Early in 1984 Wally and Mary built their own super-insulated home in a new subdivision, Arrowleaf Hills, southeast of Bozeman. This reunited them with long-time friends: early MT Outdoor Writers and Conservationists, Norm & Sil Strung, MT Modernist Artists Professors Bob & Gennie DeWeese, Poets Miki & Thomas Thornburg, Professors and Authors, Michael & Lynda Sexson, to drop a few names. They entertained family and friends, holding and attending endless dinner parties replete with glorious laughter, winding conversation and magnificent fare, while prospering contentedly in the warm community of neighbors and rural Montana beauty. Wally was instrumental in organizing neighbors and friends into a festive community, who shared bon fires, solstice celebrations, and local pub and restaurant outings, to the extent of becoming each other's keepers, generously offering time to maintain lawns, clear away snow, and sincerely care for mutual interests and property, Montana style.

Both Mary and Wally were fond of little doggies, especially their Shelty and Yorkie pets. Wally

was an avid reader inclined to many diverse interests. In the 80's he illustrated several books for Field & Stream and Sports Afield editor/writer Norman Strung, including An Encyclopedia of Knives and To Catch a Trout. In the 90's he designed site-specific Sun Dials for homeowners as a side business to architecture. When not absorbed in architecture he revealed his artist soul, by making large synesthesia paintings that assigned vibrant colors and form to musical notes of J.S. Bach's fugues and movements. With logistical help from friends and neighbors he exhibited his paintings and elaborate drawings at Helena's Holter Museum, the Bozeman Harris Gallery, the Emerson Cultural Center and various other venues.

And while devoting long hours to caring for Mary when she became seriously ill, he never stopped making art. Ever prolific, his imagination drove him to produce a vast series of

meticulous, prismacolor compositions, which led to his publishing the book "noodling" in 2021.



Wally had a fondness for Opera, volunteering to assist Intermountain Opera of Bozeman over the years, and frequently supported his fellow artists, attending show openings whenever possible. While sensitive and supportive, Wally would often abruptly end his phone conversations, "Okay, catch you later," just as he was quite proud of patriotically reciting the phrase, "Once a Marine, always a Marine." His final entry in a notebook found beside him: "Picture in your mind's eye. Consciousness will always be one dimension above comprehensibility."

He is survived by stepsons: Christopher Langan (wife Gina) of Mercer, MO; Mark Letman (wife Eileen, and step grandson David) of Walnut Creek, CA; Colter Langan of Spokane, WA (step granddaughter Olivia of Bozeman, MT). He is also survived by his sister Janis Horan (husband Tim) of Helena; his niece, Shawna Storm and her children, Dyllan, Dallas, and Austyn of Great Falls; another niece, Tawnya Storm (husband Mark Bossenbrook) and their children, Tommy and Maya; his cousins Betty Hays (husband Dennis) and their three children, Kris, Mike, and Erin; Duane Klarich and his children, Mia and Steve, David (wife Elizabeth) Klarich and their daughter Carissa, and Dean (wife Julie) Klarich; and Melanie Hansen Thomas (husband Terrell) and daughter, Brenda. And he will be missed by other close companions across the country, especially Architect Doug Rand, Artists, Joop Demeij, and Pete Stein, locally, and fellow Marine and close friend, Jerome P. McDonald (Mac) of Butte, and fellow Architect and dear friend, Banu Azizi of Carmel Hills, CA. Our thanks to Dahl Funeral & Cremation Service.

Memorial services are pending and will be held when wildflowers are in bloom.