Adam Koss

Adam Koss, 97, left us peacefully for his last roundup on Wednesday, September 24, 2014. He spent his last years in a retirement home in Malta. He is survived by his wife Babe (Virginia) who would have celebrated 66 years together with him this fall. Surviving children and their families are: John and Suzanne Koss of Malta; William and Sallie Anne Koss of Roundup; Lee and Maxine Koss of Wilmore, Kentucky; Virginia Brockway of Sheridan, Wyoming; Kathleen and Brian Pruiett of Bremerton, Washington, and his fourteen grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren, living across the globe in each hemisphere. Additional survivors include many cousins, nieces and nephews, and their children.

Adam was born on April 12, 1917, to John and Ellen (Bellamore) Koss at Pigeon Point in Cook County, Minnesota, the youngest of ten children. His siblings John, Nassau, Charles, Stanley, May, Ethel, Alice, Eleanor, and Agnes all predeceased him. After moves from Minnesota to Canada and finally Montana, their family settled on the edge of the Larb Hills of south Phillips County. While Adam graduated from Box Elder School, he and his bride sent every one of their five children to college.

He was a proud US Navy veteran of World War II. He worked his way up to crew chief of a Navy C47 aircraft that was based out of northern Australia. From there he logged thousands of hours of flight time including many trips in the combat zones to support logistics to our troops engaged in fighting on New Guinea and for our Pacific island campaigns. After his discharge he returned to marry another Navy veteran, Virginia Lee Barnard, on November 13th, 1948, and they made their home on his family homestead.

His brothers and sisters said Adam was a firecracker as a boy, and he remained one throughout his life. He was always ready to play a tune on his harmonica, recite poetry from memory, dance around the room with his wife, tell a story of life in the country or about his time in Australia, romp through the house with his grandkids, and setting up his checkerboard to take on all comers for an intense game ending in his victory.

He learned to ride rough horses and work cattle before his teen years and spent his life as a hard working farmer, very capable cowboy, and successful rancher. An early innovator of modern farming in south Phillips County, one of the first to own a modern grain combine and the first to both design and construct a system to spread the flood waters to irrigate his dryland hay ground using his own laser system to do the surveying. He was one of the first to commercially harvest native plant seed when the mine reclamation market started in Montana.

A wake, a funeral, a graveside ceremony, and a reception were scheduled. The wake was on Sunday, September 28. The funeral was on Monday, September 29. Both were held at the Kirkwood Funeral Home in Malta. The graveside ceremony was immediately after the funeral and held with military honors. Following Monday's graveside service there was a reception at the Community Church in Malta. Flowers may be sent to the Kirkwood Funeral Home. Any donations may be made to your favorite charity in memory of Adam Koss. The public is invited to all events.