Robert Kelleher

Montana attorney and political activist, Robert C. “Bob” Kelleher passed away in Billings on May 29. He was 88. Born to Leo F. and Mary Carlson Kelleher in Oak Park, Illinois on March 30, 1923, Bob grew up in south Chicago. He graduated from Mount Carmel College, Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1945 and later earned a Juris Doctorate in 1950 from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In 1953, Bob earned a Ford Foundation Grant to study for one year at Harvard Law School. He opened Kelleher Law Office in Billings in 1958. In 1990, he left that law practice to his son Robert Kelleher Jr. and moved to Butte, where he continued to practice law until very recently. While studying in D.C., Bob met and married Geraldine DeBacker in 1949. They moved to Billings in 1952, where they raised six children before divorcing in 1975. He later married Cheryl Higgins; they divorced in 1995 and have one son. Bob also served in the U.S. Army Reserve, starting as an artillery officer and retiring as a colonel in Military Intelligence. He attended U.S. Army Intelligence School from 1958 to 1962 and graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1972. As a 40-year member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he was known as “Blessed Bob,” because of the support, encouragement and wisdom he provided to fellow members. Bob was a devoted Catholic and recently completed training to become a Definitely Promised Member of Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. In Montana, Bob is best known as an iconoclastic politician, who advocated for the rights of minorities, the poor, the unborn and the disenfranchised. Though he ran for office 16 times, he was only elected to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention, where he proposed creating a unicameral legislature and outlawing discrimination against Gays. He later promoted a parliamentary form of government, which he believed would raise the standard of living for all Americans. Bob was preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Patricia Kelleher Jacobus, and his former wife, Geraldine. He is survived by his children, Robert, Jr. of Billings, Eryn of Folsom, CA, David of Kalispell, Mollie of Longmont, CO, Richard (Sheri) of Eugene, OR, Denny of Folsom, CA and Joseph of Anaconda; seven grandchildren, Woody, Sean, Benjamin, Matthew (Katie), Peter, Tara (Ian Williamson), and Michael; and two great-grandchildren, Sebastian and Joshua. Memorials: Memorials may be made to Maternal Life International (http://www.mlionline.org/). Service: Friends and family are invited to share stories, thoughts and memories at rosary/celebration of life service at Dahl Funeral Chapel on Thursday, June 2 at 3:00 P.M.