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D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 6
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N 2009, MISSOULA MOURNED THE LOSS OF A BELOVED RES-
IDENT. UMBERTO "BERT" BENEDETTI PASSED DAYS BEFORE
TURNING 98. From Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy, he was a regular on the
University of Montana campus. There, he gained his master's
in education at 68 and worked several years at its print shop.
With a purposeful stride, he walked all over town, a few inches
over five feet in a Griz cap, sometimes a beret. Benedetti stayed
busy painting, writing, and researching—edifying himself into
his nineties.
The year before, Missoula bid farewell to another local treasure.
Venetian Alfredo Cipolato beamed in the tenor section of the
Mendelssohn Club men's choir and Missoula Symphony Cho-
rale. He would sing "O Sole Mio" at Bonner Park with the City
Band. With his wife Ann, he ran the Broadway Market. A cell-
phone store now stands on the site of the Cipolatos' grocery,
known for its Parmesan wheel and iconic grating machine, bar-
rel of bulbous pickles, and counter of delectable cured meats
and pungent cheeses.
Beyond Italian births and upbringings, Benedetti and Cipolato
shared another biographical chapter. Both were held captive at
Fort Missoula during World War II.
Built as an Indian Wars outpost in 1877, Fort Missoula had
housed various units before 1941, when the Department of War
loaned the site to the Federal Immigration and Naturalization
Service. They sought an internment camp. The government
by ROSS PETERSON
questa era la vita
a bella vista:
