In 1971, during a Harlem Globetrotters fundraising appearance on the Northern Montana College campus, a Northern student and future alum (74) Kim Kirby, volunteered to wrestle a bear in The Armory during halftime. After a spirited battle with the supposedly muzzled bear, Kim returned to his seat and told his companion, future wife, fellow Northern student and alum, Debbie Allen (72) “The darn bear kept licking my face.”A good and true yarn, but the Kirby’s story is even better.
After graduating and beginning successful teaching careers in other Montana schools around the state, the Kirbys returned to Havre and were instrumental in operating and sustaining Havre’s alternative high school which continues at Havre High to this day.
In 1974 Kim had taken over management of the operation which had been designed to address the needs of at risk high school students and was located on Northern’s campus.
The program was moved to Havre High School and re-designed to serve only special ed students and, again, Kim was the man for the job having received a master’s degree in special ed from Eastern Montana College, now MSU-Billings.
In 1991 Debbie was called upon to re-establish the alternative school at Havre High (Students United for New Success) where it continues to serve the community.
Kim, after a long, courageous battle with various health issues through which he continued to teach and coach, passed away in 2007.
Debbie (now Sapp, having re-married after Kim’s passing) retired to Kalispell. She recalls an outpouring of community support for Kim’s struggles typified by a successful fundraiser for is trips for treatment to the University of Washingtin medical center. The parents of Kim’s special ed students were especially active with this endeavor.
In a recent conversation with Debbie she noted Kim’s long tireless work with Havre’s Special Olympians and concluded, “Kim’s coaching and teaching philosophy never wavered. ‘What is best for the student?’
The quiet but significant legacy left by the hardworking Kirbys lives on in the Havre community and is summed up by another Northern alum the Kirby’s son Josh who, when told his Dad had pinned that bear, proudly answered, “Of course he did.”