(picture) (Veteran)

Gene C. Wilkins, 82, known fondly to many around Ennis, Mont. as “ Doc," died Friday, Dec. 27, 2013.

Services will be 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3 at the Madison Valley Presbyterian Church in Ennis. A fellowship lunch will follow at the church following interment.

Gene Curtis Wilkins was born Aug. 21, 1931, in Kennard to Grover and Fern Wilkins and was the youngest of seven children.

He graduated high school in Arlington, and then attended the University of Nebraska where he received a degree in agriculture.

He then entered the U.S. Navy where he trained as a navigator and served four years during the end of the Korean War. Upon completion of his military service, he attended the University of Nebraska where he received his degree in medicine and acquired a lifelong passion for Nebraska Cornhusker football.

He married Nancy Norton in 1961 and began his medical career in York. He and Nancy had two sons, Jay and Jamie.

While practicing in York, he was contacted by Dr. Ron Losee of Ennis who was seeking someone to assist in the medical needs of the community. Being the avid skier, hunter and fisherman that he was, Dr. Wilkins visited Ennis on a winter trip and consequently took the plunge in 1964, moving his young family to the Madison Valley to set up his own practice and establish a new clinic to attend to the general needs of the residents of the valley. He started with the basics, including setting up a small lab and system for seeing patients and attending to emergency needs. He taught assistants to do the lab work and eventually established an EMT training program to train local volunteers to staff a local ambulance service.

After eight years in Ennis, Dr. Wilkins went to Utah and recruited the first physician assistant in the state of Montana. The PA program in Utah was unique and he saw it as a solution to recruiting doctors to small towns in rural Montana. He hired Ron Handlos to work with him. However, Montana had no laws governing physician assistants and so he worked with the legislature to get the first laws concerning PAs enacted in the state. After establishing Handlos in Ennis, he helped establish a PA in West Yellowstone, Mont., as well.

Dr. Wilkins was most proud of his obstetrics work and never hesitated to mention that he had delivered more than 400 babies during his career.

Dr. Wilkins and his first wife divorced shortly after moving to Ennis, but he stayed on and raised his two young boys with the help of friends, family and the community.

In 1972, he met and subsequently married Eileen Paasch of Elkhorn and together they had two daughters, Sarah and Julie. All four children graduated from Ennis High School. Dr. Wilkins spent many hours enjoying and watching them in their pursuits and sporting events.p> Doc Wilkins tried more than once to retire from medicine but was continually called back because of lack of physicians in the area. He finally retired from medicine for good in 2004 when his wife, Eileen, became ill. He was by her side through her cancer ordeal, which ended in 2005 with her death.

He devoted his life to the medical needs of the Ennis community in a career that spanned four decades, and he was honored for this service in the dedication of the new clinic and hospital in the summer of 2011.

Throughout his life, he continued to enjoy hunting and fishing and was also an avid gardener. He loved living in his home on Ennis Lake and sharing that home with a multitude of friends and family. Fourth of July on Ennis Lake has been a huge gathering time for friends and family alike, and he was always the gracious host. Everyone was always welcomed at “the lake” all year-round. He never lost his farming roots, and the lake property reflected this as he tended to his sheep, cows and horses. When fishing, gardening or “farming,” he was rarely seen without his trademark cigar.

He loved painting in watercolor and invested many years practicing and creating some truly wonderful works of art. An annual holiday event for many family and friends was his personal Christmas cards. In October, he would start working at his art table sketching ideas and smiling to himself. He would never tell the family what the annual painting would be, causing all the kids to watch for weeks as the painting evolved into its final form. His paintings reflected his love of the outdoors, family and a superb wry sense of humor.

He was a quiet, gentle man with a huge heart. Besides being a country doctor, he would be described by most as a true country gentleman.

He was a member of the Madison Valley Presbyterian Church of Ennis and was ordained as an elder. He was an active member of the hospital board for several years and was a member of Masonic Lodge 2 in Ennis.

He is survived by his four children: Jay Wilkins of Bozeman, Mont., and wife Heidi, Jamie Wilkins of Helena, Mont., and wife Katie, Sarah (Wilkins) Schreiber of Sheridan, Wyo.. and Julie (Wilkins) York of Loyalton, Calif., and husband Todd; 10 grandchildren; sister Ruth Kruger of Elkhorn; sister-in-law Toby Wilkins of Ennis; sister-in-law Muriel Wilkins of Nebraska; and a multitude of nieces and nephews throughout Nebraska, Montana and beyond.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Eileen; and his brothers: Jamie, William G., Bob and Joe C.; and sister Eva Pearson.

Memorials are suggested to the Madison Valley Medical Center Foundation, 305 N. Main Street, Ennis, MT 59729 or Madison Valley Presbyterian Church, Box 125, Ennis, MT 59729.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~