Dr. Van Kirke Nelson, a pioneer of the ALERT air ambulance service and longtime obstetrician-gynecologist who delivered well over 7,000 babies during his medical career in Kalispell, died Saturday at age 83.

Nelson was among a determined corps of medical professionals who did whatever it took to handle emergency medical calls in Northwest Montana before ALERT was founded in 1975. 

He was a charter member of the ALERT board and served for 37 years before stepping down two years ago.

“He was probably the most amazing man I’ve ever known,” Dr. Jack Davis said.

In addition to ALERT, Davis pointed out that Nelson was instrumental in building the Kalispell Medical Arts Building (the first medical building on Buffalo Hill) and HealthCenter Northwest.

“Kirke has always been sort of a godfather,” said Davis, who has known Nelson since 1971. “He’s the guy that would arrange everything.”

During the annual ALERT fundraising banquet planned Saturday at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, a special memorial remembrance will be given for both Nelson and Ted Parod, another local emergency air-rescue pioneer who died last September.

ALERT Advisory Board Chairman Bob Sandman said Nelson’s commitment to the ALERT program was “just one small example” of his dedication to medical service.

“People that are in that profession give their lives to help others,” Sandman said. “His commitment was an obvious demonstration of taking time from what little free time he had” to make sure ALERT succeeded.

Dr. John Van Arendonk, medical director for ALERT, said Nelson “was always there” for whatever he could do to help.

“Going back to the very beginning, he was always supportive of the air-ambulance program,” Van Arendonk said.

In a 2013 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Nelson recalled how pilots Hank Galpin and Ted Parod would land their helicopter in Nelson’s front yard or at the old Kalispell hospital to pick him up for an air rescue. Galpin and Parod flew for ALERT before Kalispell Regional Hospital got its own helicopter.

It was a pivotal rescue in the South Fork drainage that led to the creation of the Advanced Life-support Emergency Rescue Team, today known simply as ALERT. A 26-year-old logger was working alongside his father in the remote reaches of the Hungry Horse area when he was badly injured.

A helicopter was in the area, assigned to a Forest Service project. It was available but by no means equipped for a rescue in the wilderness. Nevertheless, the chopper was the only hope for a rescue, so using a wire basket dangling from the aircraft, they flew the young man out, Nelson recalled in 2013. However, he couldn’t be treated en route to the hospital and died.

Loggers then rallied the medical community to establish an air ambulance service.

In 1975, air ambulance services were few and far between. When ALERT formed, there was only one urban hospital-based helicopter advanced life support system, based in Denver. 

ALERT was the first rural air service.

Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation Director Tagen Vine said Nelson has been a generous donor to ALERT and other hospital programs through the years.

“He was generous with both his time and resources,” Vine said. “This hospital wouldn’t be what it is today without his vision.”

Nelson and his wife, Helen, and their young family moved to the Flathead Valley in 1962 and he opened his Kalispell practice as the first OB-GYN in the area. Through the years, his service to the Flathead Valley extended well beyond his work with ALERT.

According to his family, he served on the Montana Medical Association board and the Board of Medical Examiners for many years. He also served on the board of directors for Glacier Bank and Kalispell Regional Hospital.

Davis also credited Nelson with initiating the first transportation of obstetrical patients from Browning and establishing specialty medical care on Buffalo Hill before the hospital was built there.

Davis described Nelson as “the single most innovative leader” he has known, but noted that “he still had that gracious caring for everybody, as does Helen.”

Beyond practicing medicine, Nelson’s other great passion was collecting Western art. He helped start the fine art auctions that have become a main event at the annual ALERT fundraising banquets. 

Art shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art have featured the Nelsons’ collection through the years. He was active in the work of the Montana Historical Society and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls.

A memorial reception for family and friends is planned from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at Flathead Lutheran Camp south of Lakeside. A full obituary will be published in Thursday’s Inter Lake.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.