Doris Lucille Guidi, 70

Doris Lucille was born in a small family doctor’s office in Whitehall, Montana, on May 1, 1948, the only daughter of Arvid and Ella Hanpa. After delivery, Ella carried her May Day baby home across the alley where Doris’s older brother Norman awaited her arrival.

Doris lived in Whitehall with her family until elementary school. The family then moved to Butte, where Doris attended Greeley Elementary and Butte High. She attended Montana Tech for one year, and there met her future husband, Terry Guidi, in geology class. He became her rock. The following year she transferred to Montana State University in Bozeman where she gained many lifelong friends and earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education degree.

After dating for three years, Doris and Terry married in Butte on Aug. 15, 1970. Immediately following, the newlyweds took teaching posts in Denton, Montana. They enjoyed the prairie of Central Montana and friendships that are born from living in a Montana ranching community. After three years they moved to Townsend where Terry taught high school English. It was there that the arrival of twin baby girls, Crystal and Jennie, graced their lives.

Terry’s job as a high school counselor brought the young family to Columbia Falls. Here they found their new hometown in which to raise their family. Doris and Terry were once again blessed by the birth of a baby girl, Rachel.

Doris immersed herself in the loving community of the Columbia Falls United Methodist Church. She held many roles over the years including Sunday school teacher, youth group leader, annual conference lay member, church camp trustee, and Yellowstone Annual Conference board trustee. She especially loved the Flathead Lake United Methodist Camp, a place she attended as a girl. She spent many a birthday cleaning cabins and the chapel at camp, preparing for the upcoming season of campers. Doris had many close friendships with her church family that spread across Montana.

After taking several years off from teaching to be at home with her daughters, Doris returned to the classroom. She taught fifth grade for a couple of years before moving to third grade, where she taught at Glacier Gateway and Ruder Elementary Schools. Doris loved teaching, and giving herself tirelessly to her fortunate students. She cared for them and followed their progression past the third grade. She attended musical recitals, sporting events, and tracked their lives into adulthood. Doris had put in 30 years of teaching at the time of her retirement in 2010.

Doris had such a generous spirit. In retirement she volunteered for CASA, a program that was near and dear to her heart, which allowed her to continue her work with children. She also enjoyed volunteering with Terry at the Museum at Central School.

Doris loved nothing more than being with her family. Terry and her daughters always knew they were the center of her world. Her sons-in-law Ethan and Mihail were a constant source of entertainment and fun. They loved to tease her good-naturedly, inventing a log of “Dorisisms.” Doris became Grammy, a dream of hers, to sweet Elsa in 2015. She made the trip to Billings, on December roads, to be there for her granddaughter’s birth.

Doris was a lifelong learner and traveler. Together she and her family traveled to Europe, around the United States, and one of their favorite places, the Oregon Coast, which they visited year after year. Glacier National Park was a special spot for Doris, especially the Trail of the Cedars, which she convinced her husband and daughters to walk with her once in the middle of the night. Her favorite place to camp was the Fish Creek Campground, Loop D, site 150.

Doris was adamant that her daughters be familiar with their family heritage and she stayed connected to her Finnish and English relatives. She visited Redruth, the town in Cornwall, England, from where her grandmother hailed and the homestead off McDonald Pass, near Helena, where her father was raised. She also ensured that her daughters knew how to make the Butte staple, Cornish Pasties. Doris loved to reminisce about her childhood in Butte and her cherished memories of time spent on the Kertula Ranch outside of Avon; the home of dear friends. Her job was to keep tally of the steers and heifers during branding.

Doris suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that crept in and stole her from her family far too soon. She bravely left her beloved home to seek a lung transplant at St Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. It was the only chance she had to prolong her life and, as she told her doctors, “to spend more years with her family.” Though she received exceptional care at St Joseph’s, her lungs failed her before she could get the transplant. She passed away peacefully Nov. 13, 2018, with her husband at her side, holding her hand. She died as graciously as she lived.

Doris was preceded in death by her parents, Arvid “Art” and Ella Hanpa and Terry’s parents, Gar and Lola Guidi.

She is survived by her husband, Terry, her daughter, Crystal Thurman, her daughter, Jennie, and son-in-law, Ethan Stapp, her daughter, Rachel, and son in law Mihail Kennedy, and her precious granddaughter, Elsa Kennedy. She is also survived by her brother, Norman and his wife, Ellen Hanpa, their daughters Kathy Russell and Michelle Lingenfelter and their families, Terry’s brother and his wife, Ron and Darlene Guidi, their son Adam Guidi and his family, and Terry’s sister and her husband, Beth and Rick Dotson. Doris also has numerous cousins who were very dear to her. She especially enjoyed spending time with her cousins, Chuck and Jill Bliss and John and Kathy Bliss in Arizona.

The Guidis will hold a memorial service at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Columbia Falls United Methodist Church, 117 Second St. West in Columbia Falls.

Donations in Doris’s memory may be made to the Flathead Lake United Methodist Camp, 21339 Methodist Camp Road, Rollins, MT 59931.