Louis Vidic

Louis Vidic

1932 - 2022

HELENA - Louis Vidic, 90, passed away peacefully surrounded by family, following a brief illness. Louis was very active doing a wide range of outdoor activities up until the end of his life. He also traveled frequently in the US and overseas throughout his entire life. He was born to Louis and Mary (Popish) Vidic in 1932, in Butte, MT. Louis attended Butte High School. He joined the US Navy in 1951 and served in the Philippines and Japan, working as a construction equipment operator until discharge in 1954. On May 26, 1958, Louis married Donna Gepford. They had two sons who were raised in Helena. Louis worked in Helena operating Lou's barbershop located on 11th avenue.

He retired at age 62 and really did a lot over the next almost 30 years. After Donna passed away, Louis enjoyed 26 years with his companion Dee Rickman, traveling extensively all around the US and Canada, and internationally as well. Louis really loved doing a wide range of outdoor activities. He floated the Grand Canyon five times running his own raft, earning the name "Lava Lou" for how well he ran one of the most difficult rapids called Lava without ever flipping his raft. For many years he went to jeep rally events in Moab, Utah and elsewhere to drive the rock crawler jeeps with giant tires he built up for extreme terrain. After retiring Louis got big into Harley motorcycles, driving over 50k miles in total on numerous trips, include multiple times to the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. In the winter he was out snow skiing or snowmobiling.

Later years, you would find Louis in Arizona in the winter driving all over the sand dunes off roading and RV camping at the dunes near Yuma. He traveled all over Europe on multiple trips. Louis saw the pyramids in Egypt, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Taj Mahal in India.

Louis is survived by his companion, Dee; and two children: James Vidic and John Vidic and two grandchildren. Other survivors include Tom, Ray and Bob Vidic, and Lou Ann McKenna and Janet Baum.

Graveside memorial services will be held at Fort Harrison Veterans Cemetery on Monday, August 7, 2023, at 11:00 AM with Military Honors (please arrive by 10:45 a.m.). A reception will follow at the Fort Harrison Veterans Service Club. Memorials may be of the donor's choice.