'Budget Bob' calls it a career

There are two things Bob Tuman loves to talk about, and the 65-year-old found a way to make a career out of both of them.

The California native retired as the recreation supervisor for Flathead County Parks and Recreation last month after more than 18 years on the job. For the 14 years before that he was the owner and operator of Budget Tapes and Records in downtown Kalispell.

“I love making people happy with the things that make me happy,” Tuman said. “Sports and music.”

The affable Tuman has been a fixture around town since he “met a local girl and got married” 37 years ago. A graduate of the University of Montana with a degree in social work and a teaching certificate, Tuman never found his way to a job with the school system, instead landing his first gig at City Service gas station, supervising the oil and tire warehouse.

Later, Tuman became one of the early cable television salesmen in the valley, toiling for Group W Cable and pitching radical new cable boxes with fledgling channels like ESPN and MTV. He was happy in that job, for a while, until his bosses crossed a red line.

“They called one Friday afternoon from back East somewhere,” he remembered. “And they wanted us people in mid-management to stay and come up with some new numbers projected for the rest of the year … and it meant that I couldn’t go to the Cat-Griz football game that year.

“And I finally just told myself, ‘the next time Cat-Griz comes around, I won’t be here.’”

UNIVERSITY OF Montana football is a red-hot passion for Tuman, who has had season tickets at Washington-Grizzly Stadium ever since it opened in 1986. He’s also a longtime member of the local board of directors for the Grizzly Scholarship Association.

But it wasn’t through Grizzly football that Tuman first earned the nickname “Budget Bob.”

Even before he quit the cable company, Tuman spent some weekends and nights working at Budget Tapes and Records, working for owners Bruce and Joan Robinson. When he heard the couple talking about selling the struggling store, Tuman seized the opportunity, taking out a loan with the help of his wife and father-in-law and becoming his own boss by buying the shop in 1987.

At the time, Budget Tapes and Records was in the heart of a bustling downtown Kalispell, switching locations a few times but always remaining in the general vicinity of the Kalispell Grand Hotel.

“It was just a really fun time in retail,” Tuman said. “It was all locally owned.”

“You just go in there and of course you had an artist in mind and Bob always had other selections,” Paul Schmaltz, a friend of Tuman’s, said. “He was easy to talk to; just a fun place to hang out.”

Tuman owned Budget Tapes and Records for 14 years, working alongside his friend, Mike Dyon, before the digital music explosion led to the store closing its doors in 2001. During those years, Tuman also hosted “Montana Blues,” a Sunday night show on a local radio station. That plus his distinctive, booming voice made him easily recognizable around town.

“Even to this day,” Tuman said. “I’ll be talking in a grocery store or something and somebody that I don’t know will stick their head around and go, ‘aren’t you Budget Bob?’”

IN THE late 1990s, his co-worker at the record store and close friend, Dyon, approached Tuman with an idea.

“(Dyon) had a full-time job, his was at the county running sports; youth and adult sports,” Dyon said. “And so we always talked sports and I knew what his job was about, and the position right above his at the county came available.

“He told me about it and said ‘come on, man, this would be great, we could do two jobs together.’”

With one day left to apply, Tuman submitted an application and eventually went on to hold the recreation supervisor position for nearly two decades.

His responsibilities there were wide-ranging, everything from organizing adult and youth recreational sports leagues to securing and preparing playing fields and courts. He even set league schedules, booked officials and, if the job called for it, scrubbed the bathrooms.

“As a managing tool, I never want to ask you to do something that I’m not willing to do myself,” Tuman said.

The county manages outdoor facilities in Bigfork, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell, but Tuman’s main area of focus was Kalispell’s Conrad Complex. That facility was also the longtime home of Flathead High School softball, and Tuman took great pride in giving the Bravettes a pristine place to play.

“He was very good to us,” Flathead Activities Director Bryce Wilson said. “He was somebody that made sure he’d take care of the kids … I can’t speak highly enough about Bob.”

IN RETIREMENT, Tuman plans to keep feeding his two interests. He’s got tickets to see Blues Traveler and Jason Aldean in concert, and he’ll be at every Grizzly football home game this fall.

Time with his family is on tap, too. His daughters, Britney and Carly, live in Missoula, and his son, Alec, works in Hawaii. And he’s got a 2-year-old granddaughter that he plans on bringing to her first Griz tailgate this year.

His wife, Connie, a longtime employee of Glacier Bank, figures to see a bit more of her husband now — when he’s not off chasing his two main hobbies. But that’s something she’s grown pretty used to.

“Connie has kind of been the rock of our family all the way through,” Tuman said. “She’s been the breadwinner and the hard worker and I’ve kind of been Mr. Mom and the goof-off with music and sports.”

Andy Viano can be reached at (406) 758-4439 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.