“Skip” George Frederick Leininger Jr., 78, of Stevensville passed away on the early morning of June 1, 2025 at his home in the company of his daughter Karen, her partner Ella, and all the animals who loved him dearly.
He was born in Minot, North Dakota to his father George Frederick Leininger Sr. and his mother Eunice Louise McKinney, where he lived with his parents and his little sister Debbie. They spent their childhood playing with the animals at the small nearby zoo and playing with their many cousins and other family. He acquired an early love of amateur radio that he continued throughout his life. He later attended NDSU where he earned his masters in entomology, bachelors in communications, plus more. He loved reading, writing, and learning. He joined the Air Force where he became a navigator on a B-52 bomber during the Vietnam War. He struggled with the difficulties living with the trauma from those experiences, having survived being shot down on a few occasions and losing his friends and fellow airmen.
A hippie and a bit of a hermit at heart, he worked many odd jobs after leaving the Air Force, from writing to veterinary, construction to electronics, he has done so much. His last few jobs included Radio DJ at Z100, and electronics technician at the Fire Lab in Missoula, even being sent to teach the techs at NASA how to properly calibrate the haze meters he so often worked on for the USFS.
Skip had been married several times; looking back on it he felt bad like he kept messing up or couldn’t get it quite right, but he had a total of five children that he loved unconditionally, from the oldest, Sean, Melanie, Dawn, Karen, and the youngest, Christopher (CJ). All he wanted was for them to be happy and know they were loved, and was always happy to hear about his grandkids and the amazing things they were doing.
After being a fighter for many years against numerous health problems, Covid complications finally strained his transplanted kidney, and his big loving heart failed. We cherished the extra time we had with him watching movies and series, listening to music, and talking. We are happy he is out of pain now, but he will be dearly missed.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.whitesittfuneralhome.com.