Gregory Thurow

Gregory Edward Thurow, seventy-six, of Sheridan, Wyoming, died on July 7, 2024. Fishing, hunting, and wild lands filled his soul and connected him to his Creator.  Setting the hook on a lunker was how he praised God, which he did often.

Greg was born in Sparta, Wisconsin on October 28^th, 1947, and raised in Tomah, where he graduated high school. He was the son of Wilbur and Verdene, both deceased, and brother to David Thurow, Susan Szmanda, and Sandra Hill.

In 1965 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin having received a Navy ROTC scholarship. College is where he learned that freedom and responsibility are closely linked, although it took a while. He was given a medical 4F which caused his military connection to end, but his respect for veterans never wavered. 

In 1970, he graduated from university with a BS degree in geography. During his last semester, he discovered his ideal career of field geology. He then took a year off to hunt and fish in Hudson Bay, Canada. In 1973 he obtained a second degree, a BS in geology, from the University of Wisconsin, then an MS degree in geology from the University of Colorado in 1975.

Greg worked in mineral exploration all over the hemisphere, including California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico, Panama, Canada, and Chile. However, most of his career was spent in his beloved Alaska, before he earned retirement via the coalbed methane boom in the place he called home, Sheridan.

In 1973 he met Beth, while she was taking her final exam under a tree at Tagish Lake in the Canadian Yukon. While not a student himself at this time, Greg was there fishing and guiding, and by prior experience knew the final exam party with her would be epic. Their first official date was a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western triple feature. Beth lasted through two and Greg begrudgingly left early with her. True love. A successful marriage began on August 24^th, 1974.

They have three children and eight grandchildren: Carolyn Banks (husband: Jared, daughters: Madeleine and Phaedra), John (wife: Rachelle, sons: Zachary, Gabriel, and Silas Gregory), Michael (wife: Amber, sons: Telkin, Paddock, and Colfax). Greg lived to hold baby Silas Gregory in his arms.

After a 2011 vacation in Kona, HI, was interrupted by a tsunami from Fukushima, Japan, Greg ignored the ‘closed beach’ sign and snorkeled anyway. A geologic event with fish, reefs, rocks, currents, plate tectonics, and magnetic fields had to be experienced regardless. To Beth’s familiar blue-eyed glare all he said was, “It was a calculated risk, not foolish, and worth it.”

Services for Greg are at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, July 20, 2024, at the First Presbyterian Church, 2121 Colonial Drive, Sheridan, with Pastor Karl Heimbuck officiating. Interment is in the Sheridan Municipal Cemetery and a reception will follow at the Church.

Online condolences may be made to www.sheridanfuneral.com. Arrangements are under the care of Sheridan Funeral Home.