Dwayne “D.J.” Kestrel died peacefully at home on August 3 after a brief illness, surrounded by the stack of trail maps he never threw away. He was 62.

D.J. arrived in Bozeman in 1998 with a Subaru wagon held together by duct tape and a season pass to Bridger Bowl, intending to stay one winter. Twenty-eight years later he was still here, driving a county plow truck on North 19th and knowing exactly which corners ice over first.

He measured his life in ski seasons and snowfall totals, not in the rising property values that turned his starter home on West Babcock into something his children could not afford on teacher and carpenter wages. Shawna and Casey both live in Belgrade now, which he called “the sensible choice” every time he visited for Sunday dinner.

D.J. served on the volunteer fire department for fifteen years and never missed the Pancake Breakfast, always taking the extra shift so younger guys could hunt. He complained about the traffic on Main Street and drove twenty miles an hour through every roundabout.

He is survived by his daughter Shawna of Belgrade, his son Casey of Four Corners, and three grandchildren who inherited his ability to spot a powder day from the kitchen window.

The mountains will still get plowed.