Scott Allen Meyer, 29

The day Scott Allen Meyer passed away, on Jan. 8, on Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort, he was smiling and right where he wanted to be, surrounded by friends and snowboarding his favorite section of the mountain.

Scott was born Oct. 12, 1981, to Valerie Maginnis and Mike Meyer in Ridgecrest, Calif.

From Ridgecrest his family moved around the West coinciding with his father’s career with the National Parks Service. Scott’s lifelong love of the outdoors was born during these early years as the family lived afield in Grand Canyon National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park and Death Valley National Park before settling in Palm Desert, Calif. Scott attended high school and graduated there in 1999.

His adventurous spirit led him to Big Sky Country and the University of Montana in Missoula. This is when Montana and the great outdoors became his home.

Scott became a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and made a group of lifelong friends whom he stayed close with well after graduation. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American history in 2003, and anyone who came in contact with Scott would certainly agree he earned his place as a dean’s list and honors list student, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge and great storytelling skills.

The outdoors was where Scott loved being. He spent four summers fighting fires for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, working at the Dillon Unit and the Clearwater Unit, where he became an engine boss, incident commander and “Clearwater All Star.”

In between seasons as a fire fighter he was a substitute teacher throughout the Coachella Valley back in California. He worked as a deputy corrections officer for the Riverside Sheriff’s Office in Riverside before being drawn back to Montana, where he became a probation and parole officer in Kalispell in July, 2008.

Scott loved being active in the outdoors, whether it was fishing, hiking, rafting, snowboarding or hunting. If he had to pick one, and the San Diego Chargers weren’t playing, Scott would probably choose a summer day standing in the river with his fly rod. Wearing that blue Chargers hat, Scott would leave work in the early evening, find a fishing hole and stay until twilight. Anyone who ever went with him will never forget his patient passion as he waited for a trout to rise above water and go after his homemade fly. He especially loved and looked forward to his annual float trip down the Madison River with his father.

When he wasn’t working or spending quality time with friends and family, Scott was reading, another passion of his passed along by his librarian mother. He too was a librarian and was always passing along books to his friends to read. “Read it and pass along.”

He lives on through those who knew him. He is as unforgettable as the history he knew at heart.

Scott is survived by his mother, Valeria, of Mission Viejo, Calif.; his father, Mike, of Palm Desert, Calif.; his stepfather, John Maginnis, of Mission Viejo, Calif.; his grandparents, Allen and Marion Wesson, of San Diego; his uncles, Thomas Wesson of Moab, Utah, and Jack Wesson of Telluride, Colo.; and cousins, Lucy, Mia and Chase Wesson.

A local memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the second floor of the Museum at Central School in Kalispell, 124 Second Ave. East. A reception will be held there after a short ceremony and anyone who wants to bring food can.

A memorial service will also be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, at Cal State University at San Bernadino, Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building, Oliphant Auditorium, 37-500 Cook St., Palm Desert, Calif.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Friends of the Mission Viejo Library, Scott A. Meyer U.S. History Collection, 100 Civic Center, Mission Viejo, Calif., 92691.