Roy E. Korkalo (Missoula ’61)
Posted: September 25, 2026
Roy was born July 23, 1942, in Missoula and passed away at age 84 in September 4, 2026.
Roy grew up in Missoula, the son of a dispatcher on the Lolo NF. He graduated from Missoula Country HS in 1960.
He jumped at Missoula (1961-63 and 1966) and Grangeville (1964-65).
He attended the University of Montana, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological science in 1966. For years, he was a member of the Silvertip Skydivers, a group of smokejumper-skydivers affiliated with the University of Montana.
Roy later earned a master’s degree in meteorology from the University of Utah.
In 1966, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Field Artillery. He served 22 years and made colonel. He served as a ranger, aviator, and battalion commander in Korea and later logged more than 1,200 hours as a pilot in Vietnam. For a time, he worked out of the Pentagon, where his duties included inspecting Army units worldwide.
After the Army, Roy had a 15-year career in the railroad industry. He worked for the Livingston Rebuild Center in Montana, a company that rebuilt locomotives and railcars for railroads across North America. He later worked for FEMA from 2004 to 2018 as a Congressional liaison.
Roy was a featured smokejumper in a 2022 PBS documentary about the 1961 Higgins Ridge Fire on the Nez Perce NF, a ferocious blaze that trapped 20 smokejumpers on a remote mountain. Roy was one of them.
“I remember that as soon as we got to the fire, just seeing it blow up,” Roy told the University of Montana’s school newspaper in 2022. “I just remember seeing whole trees literally explode from the fire in ways I’ve never seen before.”
Roy was an NSA Life Member and jumped at Missoula 1961-63,66, and Grangeville 1964-65.
