About Russell B. Crites

About Russell B. Crites

I always told my kids I was born at home not the hospital account I wanted to be with my mother. The truth was my ma had 7 babies before me so I was born at home and not the hospital, you see she had been through this before.

I was raised part of the time in a three room former homestead shack on a farm/ranch with no running water or indoor plumbing. The farm/ranch was north of Gildford which had a peak population of maybe 300 people at one time or another.

I attended school in Havre, Gildford, and Dodson Montana. I spent about 2 years in Bozeman, Montana attending Montana State University. I quit to support my family a wife and a child and moved back to northern Montana. I did various jobs, farming, ranching, service station attendant, store clerk, parts man, tire salesman, counselor, and right before my main career I put up grain bins and steel buildings. Oh I forgot I sold used cars for about 3 days.

Finally hired out on the railroad and spent 33 years and 8 months working as a switchman, brakeman, conductor and an engineer my last 22 years. I retired in 2011 and have been writing and sleeping at night for the first time in years.

I’m happily married for the past 35 years and have 4 children and 4 grandkids, scattered from coast to coast.