Who is Gary Marbut?
What is Gary Marbut?
(besides being a candidate for Montana House District 94)
Very first, Gary is the proud father
of two great sons:
Scott, Ret., US Army Special
Forces Ty,
out of college,
Recipient, Bronze Star,
Iraq
working, out of state
Gary is an organic gardener and an amateur
musician:
Gary's organic garden -
Gary and his Framus 12-string guitar
every year for 30+ years
"amateur
musician" more info
Gary is a very successful citizen activist, and a patriot:
Bill signing,
Helena
Gary's pickup (with Lea),
Rep.s Vick & Davies, Gov. Martz, Gary original-owner, 138,000 miles
Gary has written 64 bills that have
passed the Montana Legislature
Gary is a husband, and a veteran of the U.S. Army, 1966-1969:
Wife Ellen (the RN) and
Gary Gary wearing clothes provided
by Uncle Sam
- circa 1968
Real accomplishments - hands-on
experience and success
Much more
than just talk!
Empowering
women. Gary has
graduated over 2,000 Missoula-area women from classes he teaches
in methods of self defense, empowering women to be able to
enforce their choice to not be victims. See the May
20, 2012 story at KECI TV and theJuly
4,
2012 Missoulian story.
Green - Energy
conservation. Gary lives
in a solar home he built as a model of residential energy
conservation, featured in a Missoulian supplement (April 14,
1980) when new. This home
located in HD 94 still uses minimal energy. For over two decades, Gary has paid extra each month
to buy electricity from renewable sources. Gary was appointed by Democrat Governor Ted
Schwinden to serve on the Montana Governor's Advisory Council
for Energy Conservation. Gary wrote and sold computer
software approved by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to model,
predict, value and improve a home's energy conservation
features.
Green
power generation from excess forest biomass. In
2005, Gary originated and described an environmentally friendly
process to clean up our forests and prevent catastrophic wildfires by using biomass
conversion technology to convert excess but low-value forest
biomass into green electricity at the forest cleanup project
location and use the power grid to transport this desirable
green electricity to willing buyers. This process is
carbon neutral and produces zero pollution, unlike wildfires,
and would provide much-needed jobs. See Gary's proposal HERE.
Health care. Working for the Tanana Chiefs Conference under
a federal grant he wrote, Gary designed and implemented an
emergency medical services system to deliver care to the Native
American population of the Interior of Alaska, covering an area
about the size of Texas. Gary taught emergency medicine
for the Tanana Valley Community College in Fairbanks,
Alaska. Gary was an Advanced Life Support Paramedic for
most of a decade.
Protecting children. Gary wrote and implemented the highly acclaimed
"Be Safe"
firearm safety program for Montana children. With over
100,000 copies of Be Safe distributed across Montana, this important program is
the most common method used to deliver firearm safety training
to young children in Montana. Be
Safe is approved by
the Montana Legislature, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, law enforcement and others.
School teachers asked to rate Be
Safe on a scale of 1-10 give
it an average score of 9.9. Given the high density of
firearms in Montana, Be Safe has become the preferred method to deliver essential
firearm safety education to Montana children, affecting many
thousands and certainly saving many children's lives. (Letter
from OPI supporting Be Safe (.pdf file) CLICK HERE;
Senate Joint Resolution 16, 2007 endorsing Be Safe (.pdf file)
CLICK HERE)
Fighting hunger in Montana. During the 1990s, Gary organized a multi-year,
statewide campaign for hunters to donate excess game meat to
neighbors in need and to Montana food banks. (See News Release - MSWord file)
The food bank network reported that meat donated by hunters
became the primary source of protein-rich food for their
clients, food that was also free of pesticides, antibiotics,
steroids and other commercial chemicals.
Gary is a published author. His book Gun Laws of
Montana is in its Third
Printing, with nearly 10,000 copies sold. It is the
standard reference on that subject in Montana, with copies in
the reference libraries of the Montana Supreme Court and the U.
of M. School of Law. Gary is also a storyteller. A veteran writer,
Gary has also written a historical piece about the Grant Creek Valley
where he grew up. Gary has published two e-books at
Amazon.com, one a book of autobiographical short stories and
another a guide to hunting elk with handguns.
Preserving Missoula history. In 1980, Gary designed and distributed an etched
marble collage of Missoula architecture and scenery, titled "Missoula, The Garden City," thereby
preserving for future generations images of historic Missoula
places.
Union connections. Gary was a member of the Millworker's Union
while working at the Champion Mill in Bonner during college at
the U. of M. Gary was a member of the International
Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1324 for a decade. In
a previous run for HD 99, Gary was endorsed by the Missoula
Central Trades and Labor Council (NOTE: In response,
Gary's opponent distributed campaign literature saying "Gary is
not endorsed by a single union." - right, disingenuous, because
Gary was endorsed by ALL of them).
Long time in House District 94. Gary first came to House District 94 in 1955,
moving to HD 94 from ten miles up Lolo Creek Road. Gary
grew up in HD 94, attending local schools and working in HD 94.
Ham radio. Gary is a licensed amateur radio operator - K7GMM.
This
Website??
As you have learned from this Website (built by Gary), Gary has
only very basic Website programming skills, but you should hire
(vote for) Gary for his other abilities 
. (BTW, the lifetime teacher in Gary
tells him there is a "teaching moment" here. Like this
plain Website, Gary is much more about substance and content
than about fancy and flash - more about providing information
and genuine service than about marketing and "selling
sizzle." Hopefully, visitors and HD 94 voters are more
interested in the product and service than in the packaging.)
Gary has been:
A mill worker (Bonner);
A ski instructor (University of Montana; Snowbowl; Europe);
A ski patrolman (Senior, National Ski Patrol)
A professional firefighter (Local 1324, IAFF);
An Advanced Life Support Paramedic;
A nationally-recognized grassroots political activist (community
organizer);
A strong and successful advocate for individual rights;
An instructor of Fire Science (University of Alaska);
An instructor of Emergency Medicine (Tanana Valley Community
College);
An expert witness in state and federal courts - self defense,
use of force, firearm safety;
A self defense and firearms safety instructor, including for law
enforcement and military personnel;
4,000 citizens trained and
graduated in self defense and firearm safety
On the front page of the Wall
Street
Journal;
Featured in the High
Country
News;
Filmed
by
Public Broadcasting System for a documentary on the
Constitution
A long-time Ron Paul supporter.
Gary attended local schools:
Woodman Elementary (Lolo Creek) when it was one room, one
teacher and 20 students.
Hellgate Elementary. Graduated in 1960 when it was one
building, two rooms and two teachers.
Missoula County High School. Graduated in 1964, the last
year MCHS was one school.
University of Montana, 1964 to 1966 (interrupted by the U.S.
Army - three years; honorable discharge).
Western Montana Fair history. During the 1950s and 1960s, Gary had many 4-H livestock entries in the WMF and received awards for Grand Champion beef steer, dairy cow, dairy cow/calf pair, beef cow, and beef cow/calf pair. Beginning in the early 1980s, Gary had a booth in the Commercial Building for about 30 years. The model Statue of Liberty on display at the WMF just inside the main entrance is on indefinite loan to the WMF from Gary.
Special
Note: Many people in HD 94
want to know where Gary stands concerning medical
marijuana. Here are some published positions:
Missoulian,
March
16,
2012
Missoulian,
September
28, 2011
Montana
Cannabis Industry Association endorses Marbut for HD 99
Historical Trivia
In the early Fall of 1963, Gary was suspended from Missoula
County High School for a week for writing a (published) letter
to the editor of the Missoulian critical of the school board for
having cancelled a student assembly to hear a speech from
Democrat U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. The school board
thought that young minds couldn't handle whatever Senator
Kennedy might say. Gary pointed out in his letter that
Ted's brother was the President of the United States, his other
brother was the Attorney General of the United States, and Ted
was a sitting U.S. Senator. Gary suggested that these
credentials ought to be sufficient to allow students to hear
what he might say. The school board held firm with the
speech cancellation and Gary got a week vacation from school for
having publicly criticized the school board.
In 1971 Gary testified before a committee of the Montana House
of Representatives AGAINST a bill that would have granted a $50
bounty to any person who provided information leading to the
arrest and conviction of a person who possessed marijuana.
This was called the "Marijuana Bounty Bill." The
Legislature killed the bill. The day after Gary's
committee testimony, the Helena Independent Record ran a story
about his opposing testimony.
Gary reads voraciously. Since January 1 of 2013, Gary has
read well over 100 books, about 70% fiction and the remainder
about the law, the Supreme Court and history. You guessed
right. Gary has bookcases full of books. However,
Gary has gotten hooked on his Nook since receiving it for
Christmas almost two years ago. The Nook helps relieve
Gary of the need to keep building new bookcases in his
home. Gary's favorite author may be Dean Koontz, although
Gary has read all or nearly all of the works of other prolific
authors such as Robert Heinlein, Michael Chrichton, John
Grisham, Allistar MacLean, Louis L'Amour, John D. McDonald, Tony
Hillerman, Tom Clancy, Stephen Hunter, Robin Cook, Pat McManus,
Stan Lynde, Arthur Clark, Issac Asimov, Matt Bracken, Orson
Scott Card, Brad Thor and others.
Gary rarely watches television, and
gets most of his information Online (it's all true, don't you
know). Gary regularly reads the Missoulian and the
Missoula Independent Online, other Montana papers, and even
foreign news outlets. Gary subscribes to about 20
different daily or weekly newsletters delivered via email, such
as that from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (epic.org).
There's more, but that's enough for
now.
