John Curtis Board, 89, of Helena, Montana, was born on May 18, 1936, to Victor and Pearl Board on a farm near Onarga, Illinois. A sinner, he died of natural causes on March 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
John was reared in Illinois until he was six years old and in 1942 his family moved to Indiana. He attended first grade at Liberty Loan School in Illinois; Raub School in Raub, Indiana; and Kentland Grade School and Alexander J. Kent High School in Kentland, Indiana.<\/p>\n
He earned his BA from Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, Indiana; his MA from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming; and his MLS from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. He also attended the University of Montana for one year doing post-graduate work in US History and he completed diaconal studies from the Montana Episcopal Diocese’s School of Theology.<\/p>\n
On June 15, 1965, John married Mait Birgitt Erickson of Kansas City, Missouri, a daughter of Swedish immigrants. She was the anchor in his life. To that union, two beloved sons were born: John-David Hicks Board and Andrew Erickson Cox Board.<\/p>\n
From 1958-1959, John taught his first year at Goshen High School in Goshen, Indiana. In 1959 he moved to Great Falls, Montana, where he taught from 1959 to 1980. He first taught at East Junior High School and later at C. M. Russell High School.<\/p>\n
From 1973-1975, John served as president of the Great Falls Education Association (GFEA). From 1976-1984, he served as president of the Montana Education Association (MEA). During his 1973-1975 tenure as president of the GFEA, he was one of the state’s teacher leaders who were successful in obtaining collective bargaining rights for teachers. In 1980, he became the first full-time president of the MEA. From 1984-1996, John served as the director of professional practice and government relations for the Connecticut Education Association in Hartford, Connecticut. In 2008, he served as the Interim Executive Director of the Montana Association of Churches.<\/p>\n
John’s master’s thesis, “The Lady from Montana: Jeannette Rankin”, was the first academic thesis devoted solely to the life and work of the first woman who served in the United States Congress. In 1991 he edited an anthology, A Special Relationship: Our Teachers and How We Learned.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>On September 18, 2005, John was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Montana.<\/p>\n During his lifetime, John was active in various professional, civic, state, national, and religious organizations. Among those were the GFEA, MEA, and NEA; the Montana Civil Rights Advisory Board; the Republican and Democratic political parties; the American Civil Liberties Union; the councils of various LCA Lutheran Churches in Montana and Connecticut; and the vestries of Episcopal Churches in Great Falls and Helena.<\/p>\n John is survived by his sons, John-David and Andrew; his daughter-in-law, Stephanie, the wife of John-David; and his grandsons Nicholas and Haylan. Nieces and nephews also survive him.<\/p>\n He was preceded in death by his wife Mait; his parents Victor and Pearl Board; his older brother Donald and his wife Mary; his younger brother David and his wife Julie.<\/p>\n Friends and family are invited to gather for a visitation on Friday, March 27, 2026, between 4 and 6 p.m. at Anderson Stevenson Wilke & Retz Funeral Home, 3750 N Montana Ave, Helena, MT.<\/p>\n