Milton Earl "Zack" Wester

1946 - 2025

Milton Earl (Zack) Wester

Milton Earl (Zack) Wester of Laurel, Montana, watched his last Cubs game July 22, 2025. He was at home after a three-week hospital journey where his big heart was trying to help his lungs fight pulmonary hypertension.

Milt was born April 15, 1946, in Helena, MT, to Leo and Mary Wester. The family soon moved to Livingston, MT, where "Zack," as the family nicknamed him, played on the banks of the Yellowstone River and at the Spring Creeks, where his dad passed the fishing DNA to his redheaded son. Leo died fishing at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone Park when Milt was 4 and his mother and her second husband Forest Huff moved to Billings to the "little 5-acre farm" across from Lockwood School, which he attended through 9th grade, a school he praised for its good teachers and education ethics.

At Billings Senior High a junior, named Gloria Fields, shook his hand in congratulations for his election as senior class president. Neither of them ever let go of those hands from then on. When Milt and Gloria began their 59 years of marriage January 15, 1966, he landed a job at the Billings Gazette. In two short years he moved from proof carrier to sales, then became the Gazette's first computer programmer, which required crash coding courses in Fortran and accounting both. At the same time, Milt and Gloria were earning their degrees at Eastern Montana College (MSUB). He double majored in history and English.

After declining a Lee Corporation job in Iowa, Milt worked for Pat Goggins' MontWyo newspapers, where he learned the 360 degrees of newspaper operation. Soon he launched an outdoors publication of his own, then added a weekly citywide classified paper, the Shopmate. He soon installed his own press that rolled off publications composed by Compugraphic typesetting equipment that produced galleys of stories that were developed in the darkroom. He lured Gloria from her junior high teaching position at Lockwood to help with production and sales duties, and they added Gloria's 36-year run with "Welcome! Visitors Guide" (W!VG), a staple for the tourism industry.

After selling the classified paper in 1979, Milt launched The Home Improvement Show under the corporate name of Rimrock Productions, held twice a year at Rimrock Mall. Campbell Calvert, owner of The Laurel Outlook newspaper in Laurel, MT, insisted that Milt return to the publishing industry, making Milt an offer to buy him out that Milt couldn't refuse. Milt and Gloria sold the Home Improvement Show to Merlyn Hedin, sent oldest son Todd (1966) off to matriculate through a degree at Stanford University, moved Christopher (1968) and Sara (1972) from Dogwood Lane in Billings Heights to Laurel, and in 1984 began a 30-year run of publishing The Laurel Outlook.

During all of these entrepreneurial enterprises, Milt was coaching his sons in baseball, first the Security Bank team at Lissa Little League on Virginia Lane in Billings, then the Rimrock Productions team at Clevenger Field in the Heights, and finally the Laurel Dodgers at Thomson Park field ballpark in Laurel, which he helped build. He earned his coaching stripes over 13 years.

Milt loved teaching people, especially his kids and grandkids. Beside him they learned baseball techniques, hunting and fishing ethics and strategies, how to look forward to it all, and to have fun. He taught them all to process their own wild game as if he were "professor processor."

The Montana Newspaper Association named Milt Master Publisher in 2002. He earned the title by mastering every aspect of newspapering and publishing, from helping the devoted subscriber who walked in the front door of The Outlook at 415 East Main to place a want ad, to the typesetting, editing and actual printing of the product on the Goss Suburban press that he installed himself, to the newspaper carriers and mail deliverers who took the finished product to the paper's readers. Besides their own products, The Laurel Outlook, W!VG, the Explorer Magazine and maps, Milt worked with other publishers in the area and printed livestock publications, books and magazines. He supported and respected his employees who were vital to putting out dependable, accurate, relevant news. During the years that he added the Hysham Echo to the Outlook Publishing corporation, he pioneered the first-in-the-state transfer of files from one modem to the other. He was truly a master.

His philosophy was that to be the heartbeat of a community, a newspaper publisher needs to be involved in the business community, support public services, and be sure the politicians are serving the public interests, not their own. Locally he served as president of the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, chaired the retail trades committee, and provided free office space for the chamber for the ten years required to rebuild the historic chamber cabin office. He shepherded the building of the Canyon Creek Battlefield wayside interpretive shelter 7 miles north of Laurel. He had a special bond with the Nez Perce members who came many times on the battle anniversary, Sept. 13, to renew vows of peace. He smoked Chief Joseph's peace pipe.

Statewide he served as president of the Montana Newspaper Association in 1990 and as president of the Montana Newspaper Advertising Service for many years. Many colleagues called him their mentor.

Of course all of the kids worked in many aspects of producing the printed products. Todd engineered wire connection transfers. Sara kept the books, inserted flyers and proofread copy. Chris was the best sports reporter any reader could ask for and was publisher of the Hysham Echo in the beginning. It was a family business.

When they weren't publishing, the family was fishing or hunting. Milt's trophies included a moose, a bighorn sheep, and a wife who wanted to be right with him at every outing. Whether he was hunting with Sara and Jeremy above Jackson Hole, or with his buddies and family in Montana, he was in God's church. One year he and his horse Cedar helped 15 fellow hunters get their elk out of the Gardiner area. Fellow hunters remarked at his strength, sense of direction, willingness to help, and natural barrier against the cold and wind.

When he retired in 2014, he was able to work on and restore his classic cars, a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk with a supercharger, a 1956 Studebaker Transtar pickup, the 1980 GMC Sierra Classic, and a 1963 Ford Falcon Futura convertible. He was in the process of restoring the 1941 Packard 160.

Love is a circle. Milt definitely was the strong link in the family circle, always ready to share his love with each individual child, grandchild, and great grandchild with a thoughtful, personal connection. He and Gloria were inseparable and had a way of climbing through challenges and celebrating the joys of family and their successes.

Deadline day for putting out the Outlook was Tuesday. Late Tuesday night work was a given. Fittingly, he kept his family and Hospice team up late Tuesday, July 22, to enjoy the last of his 79 years with family. At the end of the ninth inning, Cubs vs. Kansas, the score was 6-0. He proclaimed, "Cubs win. Yippee! Put the flag out!"

Milt was preceded in death by his unmatched mother Mary Will Wester Huff McCord, his father Leonore Wester, stepfathers Forest Huff and Francis McCord; his father-in-law and mother-in-law Lawrence and Martha Fields; his brothers-in-law John Morris, Lee Winterowd and Randy Hoover; and his step brother John McCord and step sisters, Marcis Sage and Patricia (Pixie) McGrew.

He is survived by his wife Gloria, son Todd (grandson Emmett and his wife Jessica, and their children Brian and Zoey, grandson McCrae and granddaughter Ellianna); son Christopher (grandson Hunter and his wife Alexis "Lexi" and their daughter Audrey) (grandson Rowan); daughter Sara and her husband Jeremy Budge (granddaughter Amber and her husband-to-be Aug. 9 Umur Atan, and granddaughter Heather and her husband Orion Bergstrom). He is also survived by his sisters, Persis (Perk) Morris of Idaho Falls, ID, (daughters Mary, Shelly and Janet, and son Pete and families) and Marilyn Winterowd of Bremerton, WA, (daughter Leigh Ann and son Adam and families) his brothers-in-law Larry Fields of Durant, MS, Justin Fields of Billings (daughters Jacie, Ryleigh, and Toree and families), Harvey Fields and his wife Lorinda, of Bozeman (son Keegan and daughter Lissa) and many great nieces and nephews.

To honor Milt, write your sentences in the active voice, watch a ball game, and embrace your loved ones. Make your donations in his honor in the form of time and service to kids and community. Donations in his name may be made also to the MT Newspaper Assoc. scholarship fund, P.O. Box 727, Missoula, MT 59806.