Darell Bentz

As he attended high school, Darell became good friends with Gary Likkel, the older brother of his future wife, Bonnie. Because he visited the Likkel house so often, Bonnie had the opportunity to size Darell up and developed quite a crush. A while later, she managed to catch Darell's eye, and in 1966 they married in the fall. This September would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. Darell liked to say he was happily married for 45 years of their nearly 50 years together, but that luckily, the bad days only came a few at a time.

Darell attended the University of Idaho, where he studied animal science. He also developed an interest in welding during this time and worked extra hard to get the only A in his class. As a newlywed, Bonnie soon discovered that if Darell did not show up after class, he was "just" at the lab practicing. Between his varied interests, welcoming their first child, Keri Bentz, into the world within a year of getting married, and taking time off to work planting trees or logging in order to pay for school, Darell was fond of saying he compressed a four-year degree into seven, graduating in 1968.

Darell and Bonnie moved to Lewiston in the fall of 1968. He worked for the Lewiston Grain Growers until he and his brother started a business building swimming pools and chain-link fences. In 1974, the brothers divided the business in two, with Darell starting Intermountain Pools and Rusty taking over the fence side with Bentz Fence Co.

In the winter, Darell kept his pool crew occupied by building an aluminum jet boat or two each season. Thus, Bentz Boats got its start. Being Darell's true occupational love, he honed his craft over time into an internationally renowned business, building boats that were delivered (often personally) and used in such far away countries as India, Nepal and Guyana or nationally on the Mississippi River and various rivers in Alaska and Canada. He also developed technology, such as stick shift steering instead of steering wheels, that have become mainstream for high-end jet boats.

Darell was an avid fisherman and hunter. In the fall and winter, when he was not building boats or fishing and hunting with family and friends, he developed a third business taking people on guided steelhead fishing trips on the Snake and Salmon rivers. A true people-lover, some of his best memories involved teaching people the joy of the outdoors.

He taught this love of nature to his four children, who survive him, Keri, Bryan, Cammy and Angie. Indeed, the best memories his family shares together are those many camping, fishing, hunting, jet boating and other outdoor adventures they grew up believing every family enjoyed.

While on a hunting trip in '06, Darell experienced the first clear sign of the illness that would eventually take his life. He came home and reported to his wife that he was too short-winded to keep up with his buddies. After a few months of minor medical care with no improvement, it was eventually discovered that he had pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that turns lungs into scar tissue. After a whirlwind year in '07 of getting the diagnosis, meeting the requirements for a lung transplant, moving with Bonnie to Seattle to be near the hospital in the event of an organ donation, and deteriorating so quickly that he was dangerously close to dying before an organ match was made, all were thrilled when he was able to get his double lung transplant the day after Thanksgiving of that year. Despite many hurdles, Darell used his focus, persistence, love of life and work ethic to overcome, and was released back to his beloved home by April 2008.

With Darell's second chance at life, he wasted no time in taking advantage. Until January 2015, when he began a course of chronic lung rejection that led to his demise, he enjoyed giving away his youngest daughter in marriage and subsequently welcoming three grandchildren into the world and watching them grow. He organized adventures at the family cabin on the Salmon River and went on horseback pack trips with his fellow "old cronies" for a week or two at a time in the rugged Idaho mountains. Finally, he jumped at the chance of a lifetime to deliver a boat with his son, Bryan, who had since taken over Bentz Boats, and his brother, Rusty, to the Arctic during the 40 days of the year when it's not frozen solid. They traveled through Canadian rivers never before navigated by boat in order to reach their destination.

Darell is survived by his wife, Bonnie; daughter Keri; son Bryan and daughter-in-law Jaynie; and granddaughters Sami and Jacque; daughter Cammy and her partner Karen; daughter Angie and son-in-law Richard; and grandkids Amelie, Elliot and Sylvia; and brother Rusty and his family.

A private graveside service will be held later this week. A celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Valley Christian Church, followed by a dinner reception at the Lewiston Roundup grounds. Donations may be made in his memory to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.