Cleaning house: 50 years of possessions sold at auction
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RONAN — From a box of vintage green-handled kitchen tools to a 26-foot, 1967 Rawson sailboat, items collected and accumulated during a lifetime were up for auction Saturday, filling the Ronan Community Center and a 40-foot by 60-foot tent behind the building — plus the surrounding lawn.
After two days of preview, Rivers West Auction held the living estate/moving sale for longtime residents Dick and Monte Wunderlich on May 17.
The Wunderlichs have lived in the Ronan area since 1962, owning and operating the Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealership for 39 of those years.
“We did everything,” Dick said, “golf, fish, hunt, ride.”
Now they plan to move to their lake cabin near Big Arm permanently and are downsizing.
Speaking about their art, guns, furniture and collections, Monte said, “I’ve enjoyed it all the years I’ve had it, and now I hope somebody else will enjoy it.”
The day of the auction, she said “it felt like I was looking at somebody else’s stuff.”
Dick said he really didn’t want to be at the auction, but Jason Clinkenbeard from Rivers West said buyers might have questions.
While he mentioned wishing they didn’t have to part with a Donna Toelke original oil painting of the old Dupuis barn and some of his guns, Dick said, “Most of all, I’m going to miss the people.”
When the Wunderlichs move to Big Arm, they won’t see everybody around town on a daily basis, although they’ll continue attending services at the Mission Valley United Methodist Church.
He has a plan, though. Dick asked the church to make up a list of chores, and he’ll come down one day a week and work at the church.
Glen, one of the Wunderlichs’ sons, has a car lot in Ronan, and Dick said he’d work with his son a day a week, too.
The Wunderlichs have kicked the idea of an auction around for quite a while, and it has been more than a year in the works, from just the idea to an on-site appraisal and selecting a venue, according to Reed Tobol, who works with Rivers West.
Intense marketing during the last four weeks included radio ads, photographing and listing the items on iCollector and at least 2,000 fliers and mailers.
“What drove the sale was the guns,” Tobol said, adding that proxy bidders from Texas, Idaho and other states across the nation as well as buyers at the auction were interested.
Clinkenbeard said, “Overall I believe expectations for the auction were met if not exceeded.”
With 375 registered onsite bidders and 100 registered online bidders, Clinkenbeard had his hands full. He’s a pro, having started Rivers West in the spring of 2010. Both he and Tobol commented on what super people Dick and Monte were and how easily they worked together.
The Wunderlichs had a lot of work to do, too, such as organizing, polishing and piling like items and then making sure everything with a motor started, but Dick said, “The church guys pitched in.”
Then on Tuesday, May 12, the procession began at the Wunderlich’s place on Terrace Lake with eight big trailers loaded to the hilt along with vehicles, a sailboat, a buggy and four carloads of guns and fragile items all headed for the community center.
“We have a history with the community center,” Monte said.
Dick was president of the Jaycees and she was a Jayceen, two organizations instrumental in getting the community center built. During auction preparation, Monte found a picture of Dick, Jim Corcoran and Norm Stedje, Ronan’s mayor at the time, with the first shovelful of dirt at the community center groundbreaking.
Monte and Dick attended many events at the center while raising their four children — Mary Strozzi, Glen Wunderlich, Troy Wunderlich and Kelley Druyvestein.
Although all four Wunderlich kids were offered their pick of Dick and Monte’s 50 years of gathering, they all said no. The auction was their parents’ retirement, and anything they wanted they bought at the auction.
When the auctioneer called “sold” on the last item about 6 p.m., Monte and Dick were on to a new chapter of their lives, beginning with a barbecue at their daughter’s home.
