Cushman Family

Clarice Mildred Stromert Cushman was born March 13, 1906 in Stratford, Iowa, to Ida and Bernard Stromert. She graduated from high school in Wilmar, Minnesota, in 1923 and from the State Teachers College in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1925. Clarice Stomert married William Cushman on January 12, 1935. For most of their married life Clarice Cushman lived in Missoula, Montana. She was a charter member of the Faith Evangelical Free Church.

William Howard Cushman was born January 24, 1909 in Woodstock, Ohio, to Mary Ellen and Arthur Cushman. He attended the University of Ohio, majoring in forestry, and later attended Montana State University in Missoula, Montana in 1939 and 1940. After he moved to Missoula, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Navy. After the war, he worked in Liberia, Africa, for the LeTourneau Corporation for about four years. He then rejoined his family in Missoula where he did a variety of outdoors work. He was a member of the Faith Evangelical Free Church.

The Cushmans had one child, Roger, born December 10, 1938, in Missoula, Montana. Roger was diagnosed with “quadriplegia with hydrocephalus.” The Cushmans struggled with his care and education. In the mid 1940s Roger stayed at Beverly Farm Home and School for Nervous and Backward Children in Godfrey, Illinois. When that institution’s treatment was unsatisfactory, Mrs. Cushman moved with Roger to Denver, Colorado, for speech and physical therapy. By 1946 they were back in Missoula but Mrs. Cushman searched for the best options for their son for many years afterwards. Roger Cushman died February 17, 1978.

William Cushman died April 30, 1987 and Clarice Cushman died February 2, 1993, both in Missoula, Montana.

From the guide to the Cushman Family Papers, 1918-1985, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)