With the heaviest of hearts we announce the passing of Brett Floyd Coffing.

Brett was born December 19, 1963 in Denver, Colorado to Connell Floyd and Ardith Elaine Coffing. In January of 1967 Brett's brother Scott was born. The Coffing family left Denver and moved to Missoula, and soon after chose their forever home in Butte, MT.

Brett had a passion for the outdoors from an early age, and although there is no actual evidence, I'm pretty sure he was born with a rifle and fishing pole in hand. His earliest and some of his greatest memories were hunting and fishing trips with his Father and Scott. When Brett was just 10 years old, he lost his father Con to cancer leaving a huge hole in his heart that he carried with him for the rest of his life, but his love for the outdoors remained. Every story Brett told until he left us usually involved a fishing pole, and rifle, or both.

Brett and Scott grew up in Butte but spent their summers on the Dearborn River. Brett could go on for days (if you let him) telling stories of life on the Dearborn. It was one of his favorite places, and he probably caught a million fish on that river.

Brett was such a beautiful soul that making friends was second nature to him. Brett met his best friend Doyle Davis when they were young, but they ended up going to different grade schools. However, the two ended up reuniting in their teenage years. According to Brett's recollection, Doyle was allegedly "rocking some pretty ridiculous long hair" at the time. Doyle was the truest of friends to Brett and always remained loyal and supportive to Brett up until Brett's last day on this earth. Brett was extremely proud to be Doyle's friend and the Godfather of Doyle's son Tanner, and he considered Doyle's daughter Tia a part of his family as well.

During his teen years, Brett became a part of possibly one of the most iconic friend groups in Butte history. Brett, Doyle, Kevin Odell, John Banovich, Jim Herzog, and too many others to mention could always be found either terrorizing the city of Butte or recklessly driving every mountain road in Montana. On any given day they could be found shooting out street lights, shooting arrows into the horse above the 88 Cent store sign, raising hell in the local bars, or up in the mountains chasing all of their wildlife trophies. Brett spent some of his best days with that group of friends. They made so many memories and have so many stories that I'm not sure if one has ever been repeated.

During the same era Brett also met Hank Emerson. The retired and famous army General took Brett under his wing and the two shared many hunting trips together. Brett always looked up to Hank and loved Hank's war stories and especially the bird hunting and fishing trips the two embarked on.

Brett worked at SJ Perry during his high school years selling plumbing supplies and making too many friends to count. After high school, Brett got a diesel mechanics degree from Northern in Havre, MT, however, never utilizing his degree stating "who would ever want to have dirty hands like that all the time?". Throughout his life he went on to continue to wholesale plumbing parts at MDM in Helena where he met countless friends including Lou Dumas, Terry Losey, Kristi Starz, and Ryan Werner. Moving to Butte later in life he worked at Northwest Pipe, again, in true Brett fashion-making friends wherever he went.

After college he came back to Butte where he met and married Kim Kingston. In June of 1995, the two welcomed the first of two sons Connell Emerson Coffing. Shortly after in January of 1997, they welcomed their second son Colton Brett Coffing. The two boys were definitely the light of Brett's life. Brett quickly instilled his love for hunting, fishing, and the outdoors in both boys. They enjoyed thousands of outdoor adventures over the years together all over Montana and sometimes further. He cherished every hunting trip, fishing trip, floating trip, and every second he was able to spend with them. They continued to hunt and fish together right up until the end. Brett never met anyone without making sure they knew how great his boys were. He loved them with every fiber of his being and was so proud of every one of their accomplishments. Brett also passed along his love for exotic foods and the urge to try new and exciting, sometimes extreme sports to the boys.

On February 27, 2010 Brett married the love of his life Keli. They spent many years together enjoying the outdoors and Keli even got him to (kinda) start liking sports. They too shared too many good times to count. Brett and Keli welcomed their only son, Cooper Joseph Coffing in January of 2014. Cooper was their miracle baby and Brett once again became the proudest father on the planet. Again, he passed his passion for fishing along to Cooper, but Cooper would never give Brett and inch on the whole hunting ordeal telling Brett that "maybe someday I'll go hunting". They did share countless hours, however, slaughtering the gopher population in the highlands. Cooper loved sports pretty much from birth and only cared about hockey, football, baseball, his bedroom basketball 1 on 1 games, or wrestling. Brett's hunting seasons quickly were put on the back burner for football and hockey seasons, and Brett could be found at every game cheering Cooper on and in Brett's words, "Whatever the hell was going on out there". Connell and Colton were also great athletes and Brett's newfound love was trying to love and understand their sports. He was always quizzing everyone at the field or rink about rules, or asking tons of questions, and sometimes hollering the wrong things at the ref and complaining about rules that were broken that didn't even exist. He loved to watch all three boys and their sports and could always be found in the stands sporting their team colors and hats.

Brett was always grateful for his blessings in life. His family and 3 boys were his greatest blessing and he wasn't afraid to tell everyone about it. He had countless great friends including crazy floating adventures with Wade Richards, endless stories about his travels with Dan O'Keefe, hunting trips with Sean Cameron, and always spoke of the numerous camping trips with Marty Daily and the Daily family. He had too many great friends to mention but loved every one of them dearly.

Brett was preceded in death by both his parents Con and Ardith Coffing, grandparents Floyd and Vivian Coffing, and Uncle Darell Dean Coffing.

He is survived by his wife Keli Coffing (Renz) and son Cooper Coffing, son Connell Coffing and daughter in law Michaela (Simons), son Colton Coffing, brother Scott Coffing and sister-in-law Jayne Coffing and their children Madi, Max, and Anna. Father and mother-in-law Joe and Chris Renz, sister and brother-in-law Ashley and Justin Fisher and their children, Charley and Keegan, brother and sister-in-law Christopher and Kortni Renz and their children, Kelton and Kolbie, and brother-in-law Mathew Renz. Carolyn Coffing Phillips, Kaylene Coffing Forsman, Mary Coffing and Sadra Coffing

Brett will be missed by so many but his love for everyone will live on in all of our hearts. His stories will continue on through his family and friends, but no one will ever tell them the way he did. He was a true fisherman storyteller!

Brett left notes for Cooper on random mornings. Recently we found one that we thought might be fitting for this difficult time. Anyone who knew Brett well will understand and more than likely have to laugh. In true Brett fashion it read:

"Smile, everything will be ok. Love you.

P.S. When everything goes bad get out your grocery list and go shopping."

A celebration of Brett's life will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 5, 2024 at the Front Street Station, 800 E Front St in Butte.