Victor Elwin Mack was born at his grandparents’ Big Sandy, Wyoming, ranch on July 6, 1926, to Alma (Murphy) and Elwin Girard Mack. He lived near Boulder on the New Fork River through high school graduation in Pinedale and then joined the Navy. The pride of his service was on the USS Midway as a Plank Owner, meaning he was part of the original crew of the biggest aircraft carrier ever built at that time. He was an electrician’s mate on the Midway.
Vic made good friends during his service, but at the end of his enlistment returned to Wyoming to work with his parents’ ranching interests. He went to Texas with a friend to break broncs in the panhandle for a time, but the pull of Sublette County brought him back. Vic loved the outdoors, animals of all kinds, domestic and wild, and the Hoback Basin particularly. His heart was always in Bondurant.
He met the girl of his dreams there, Josephine Ann Fisk, and they married in August 1952. They had two children, Vic Jr. and Joni. The family divided their time between Riverton in winter and Bondurant in the summer, and had cattle grazing in the Gros Ventre mountains. Vic and Jo also were big game outfitters and made lasting friendships with their hunters. The years of outfitting were treasured memories for Vic.
In 1982 they bought the historic Frank Ball ranch between Daniel and Big Piney and moved from Riverton. This cow/calf operation was the pinnacle of what Vic and Jo always wanted, with Vic Jr. and his family working on the ranch with them. When they retired from active ranching, they bought a house in Pinedale for winter and returned to the place in Bondurant as early as possible every summer, enjoying Vic Jr.’s cattle on the home place. Vic continued to help his son with fixing fence, riding roundup and haying until he could no longer do the work.
Vic Sr. was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Riverton and in Pinedale, serving as Worshipful Master of each lodge. He was also a Scottish Rite member and Shriner. While not a churchgoer, he believed in a Supreme Being and the ordering of the cosmos. He believed in the Golden Rule and tried to live by it. His family was the center of his universe and he loved each of them unconditionally.
He died at the Sublette Center on Sept. 21, 2017. He was very appreciative of the kind care and love given by all the staff, and Jo, Joni and Vic Jr. will always be grateful to them. Vic didn’t want a funeral service, but asked that his ashes be scattered at the ranch on Jack Creek and in the Gros Ventre mountains. His family will celebrate a long life, well lived, well loved.
“We do not lose the ones we love,
They only go before.
Where there is everlasting life,
Where sorrow is no more.
And there the soul will always live,
And peace is everywhere.
We do not lose the ones we love;
God takes them in His care.”
