Hundreds attend Ron Ueland funeral

BUTTE – Ron Ueland didn’t seek attention. But you wouldn’t know that judging by the hundreds who attended his funeral Friday.
“Ron Ueland was a very understated person who did many, many great things. And you can see it here, people are lined up down the block,” said his brother-in-law John Joyce.
Ueland died of a heart attack at age 65 on his ranch just west of Butte last Saturday. Ueland was a sports legend in Butte and for the Montana State Bobcats, as well as an enterprising visionary in Butte business.
“Personally, he was always a great friend, always welcome, always knowledgeable, so I’ll miss him,” Joyce said.
A former teammate who played football with Ron Ueland, both a Butte Central and the Montana State Bobcats, came all the way from Seattle to be at the funeral today because he said Ueland was not only a great athlete, he was a tremendous leader on and off the field.
“He was a wonderful, wonderful person, somebody I emulated and there was a reason he was captain of his high school team and college team is because he was a tremendous leader and person,” said Bert Markovich.
Just before his death, Ueland was in the process of starting a malt processing plant just west of Butte called Montana Craft Malt. He is survived by his wife, Sue, and they have three children and seven grandchildren.