Jerry "Red" Tange

A true Montana character, Jerry "Red" Tange passed away quietly on Dec 24, 2018 at home on Bainbridge Island, Washington at the age of 73.
The oldest of five sons to John and Margaret (Gutsch) Tange of Plentywood, he spent his youth on the family farm his grandfather had homesteaded in the far corner of northeastern Montana. There, Red developed a talent for creating, inventing, building and repairing most anything. He also relished the stories and history of the Montana old timers.
Sports became his ticket off the farm, He was a recognized talent in basketball and baseball and was recruited and received scholarships to play Division II basketball in Montana and later in Portland. He earned a BA degree in Economics and Business.
Following college he joined his brother, John, in Virginia City, Montana. The brothers worked at the ongoing restoration of the former capital and gold mining center of Montana Territory as well as managing the famous Bale of Hay Saloon. These were wild times in the Wild West and Red would tell hard-tobelieve stories from that 1970's era (most have been corroborated as truthful).
He met Michelle, his wife of 43 years in Virginia City and over time they moved to Seattle .where Red created a cabinetmaking business and later became a craftsman selling at Pike Place Market. Red built a home and shop on Bainbridge Island and was most noted for designing and building the first Commuter Comforts coffee kiosk at the ferry terminal.
Red yearned to get back to Montana so in 2000 began building on property he and Michelle had acquired during their early years in Virginia City. On the hill above town, he built a replica of a Victorian style home designed after a historic Montana mansion which he completed last summer. They spent many summers there returning to Bainbridge in winter or travelling off-the-beaten- path in Mexico.
Red's big, booming voice, his knack for telling a good story, his homespun phrases, his telling of a bawdy joke endeared him to all that listened. His generous spirit was evident to all he encountered.
As a friend of 40 some years noted: "We won't know another like Red; tough, smart, funny and complicated. He lived as he wanted and made no apologies."
A remembrance will be held in summer in Virginia City.

Arrangements are entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home.