Randy Bocksnick: 45 years a barber, a photographer, a Columbia Falls icon

There was little fanfare. A half eaten bundt cake. A simple sign on white posterboard.

"Barber: 45 years today."

And then the dates, April 3, 1964 to April 3, 2009.

And back behind the sign was Randy Bocksnick, smiling and joking, cutting Marshall York's hair.

Earlier in the day he met Buck Chapman and his wife, Ruth at the Nite Owl. Ruth baked Randy the cake. After they visited, Buck came over to the shop for a haircut.

Buck was one of Bocksnick's first customers and every anniversary they meet up and Buck gets a haircut.

Bocksnick knew he wanted to be a barber when he was a sophomore in high school. He grew up in Ronan and when he graduated, he went to the Moler Barber School in Spokane, Wash. At 19 he had his barber license and for five years he worked in a shop a block or so down Nucleus. Haircuts were a buck fifty.

He moved to 428 Nucleus Ave. and has been there ever since. Forty years.

Today the sun is shining and the shades are open and the chairs are full and Bocksnick is smiling and telling jokes. He says he doesn't know how much longer he'll barber. Could be a couple years. Could be 10. He does know this:

"It's a wonderful business," he says.

But Bocksnick isn't a community fixture just behind the barber chair. Almost as soon as he picked up a pair of scissors he also picked up a camera and started shooting Wildcat sports. He's loved photography since the eighth grade when his parents got him a Brownie camera. The walls of his shop are covered in sports and other photos. He's been shooting the 'Cats for 40 years.

The high school gym even has a plaque on the wall that reserves a spot for him. He remembers the cameras like old friends. The first one a Minolta SRT-202, with a 50mm lens. Then a Nikon F3, bought in 1985 for $500 and sold 18 years later for $750 on eBay.

"I loved that camera," he said.

For years he souped film in a home darkroom. He's kept all the negatives.

The best game ever. Back in '75. Craig Finberg's senior year. He scored 40 against Whitefish and the 'Cats won the divisional title.

"He was a pure shooter," Bocksnick recalled. "The best I've ever seen."