Tim Feeley

Tim Feeley worked for Blue Rock in Sidney from 1973 until his retirement in December of 2011. He started as sales manager when the company had three facilities - Sidney, Plentywood and Williston and since added two more facilities – Glasgow and Miles City. He was promoted to general sales manager and then general manager as the company grew.

Feeley knew John Olson from way, way back, when Feeley was a student and Olson his teacher in Hysham. “My family had a high regard for John,” Feeley stated. “When he left teaching, my mother said ‘We have lost the finest teacher this community ever had’.”

Feeley joined the military after high school. When he returned, he was working on a degree from Eastern Montana College in Billings, married his wife Sandy, and needed a job to help with college and living expenses. A friend of his worked at Pepsi in Billings, so Feeley applied and started working nights and weekends. “That’s how I started working for Pepsi. I worked for the Dimich family. They were almost as awesome as the Olson family, old time good business people, very involved in the Billings community as the Olson’s are in Eastern Montana. And I was in the business for over 40 years.”

After working for Pepsi Cola Bottling in Billings for 3 or 4 years, and starting a family, the Feeley’s decided they needed to do something with their growing brood. Since Sandy is from Culbertson, they decided to move “up north”. Feeley contacted Olson, who was getting a good start in his business. “I never looked back,” Feeley said. “I had respect for John and him for me, then the same with Karen and Randy. We had a mutual admiration society,” he laughed. “And I got to live in the best area in the world and raise my kids there.”

“We had a lot of fun as the business was growing,” Feeley said. “I worked with wonderful people over the years.” Those people included Eugene Gagner who was deaf, could not speak and worked for 35 years for John. “He lived in Fairview and his wife Opal was also hearing impaired. They had 2 daughters. He was just an interesting fellow for a young person like me.” Another was Jo Maltese who was the office manager at the time. “She was just so fun to work with. She had a zinger every day.” Skee Berndt, who formed a strong loyalty with Olson, was always interesting to work with. “John has the ability to hire people who are able to make things work. He puts his teaching background to good use – people such as Tracy Hagen and Lance Averett and many, many more. He finds talent and is able to instill a sense of loyalty so they stay. It’s amazing to me.”

Feeley loved living in Sidney and being involved in the community. “The community and education in a small town are important, and we were involved in all of them,” he said. Feeley would have stayed in Sidney (and might still be working at Blue Rock) but his son in Billings developed health issues and they made the decision to retire and move there to be closer – plus the bonus of seeing grandchildren grow up. “I’ve gone through a lot of soul searching since retirement and I know we made the right decision,” he said. “It’s the people in the business that I miss the most, Lance, Tracy, Les Pierce. You can’t just shut that off. We are doing well in retirement. We’re not regretting the move, but it certainly is a change.”

Feeley has such admiration for the Olson family. “It’s difficult to be in business right now. It’s challenging and they are handling it really well. The transfer from generation to generation is succeeding. That’s a real tribute to John and his legacy.”