A freak rockfall at one of America’s most scenic mountain roads claimed the life of a 73-year-old Missouri man during what was supposed to be a joyful family vacation. Rex Schowengerdt, a retired Kansas City resident, died on July 16 after being struck by a 45-pound rock that crashed through the roof of a Jeep as he traveled along the Going-to-the-Sun Road at Glacier National Park five days earlier.
On July 11 at approximately 1:40 p.m., Schowengerdt and his wife, Chris, were riding in the backseat of a hard-top Jeep driven by his brother-in-law along the narrow Rimrocks section of Going-to-the-Sun Road, near Logan Pass. The road, which winds through some of the park’s steepest terrain, is renowned for towering cliffs rising hundreds of feet above the narrow lanes. Without warning, a rock fell from the cliff face above and penetrated the vehicle’s roof, striking Schowengerdt directly in the head.
The impact was devastating. The rock crushed his skull and drove bone fragments into his brain stem. Chris Schowengerdt, who was sitting beside her husband of 50 years, watched as he collapsed against her. Their daughter, Amy Prince, later learned that her father had a smile on his face in those final moments before losing consciousness—a detail she found brought some measure of peace amid the tragedy. “It hurt initially to hear, but it kind of brings peace to me as well in a way because Dad was where he wanted to be and he was happy,” Prince said of her father’s passion for the outdoors.
Schowengerdt was airlifted by helicopter to Logan Health Medical Center in Kalispell, where doctors determined he had suffered brain herniation, intracranial hemorrhage, and traumatic brain injury. He remained in intensive care for five days before succumbing to his injuries on July 16. In the aftermath of the accident, his family decided to withdraw life support.
The tragedy marked the beginning of an ordeal that extended far beyond the initial crisis. After Schowengerdt was flown away by air ambulance, the others in the vehicle—including his wife—still had to navigate their way down the mountain. “Even after they flew my dad away, they still had to get down the mountain, which meant it took them two and a half hours in the same car that that happened in,” Prince recounted. It took an additional hour for them to reach the hospital to see him.
Rex and Chris had driven their recreational vehicle more than 1,300 miles from Kansas City to Glacier National Park, marking the first stop on what they had planned as a months-long journey visiting national parks in their retirement. Both had recently sold their farm and retired, eager to spend their time exploring America’s natural wonders. For Rex, the trip held special meaning—he had visited Glacier once before and was elated to return. “Dad was so excited to go back there—even weeks before they were scheduled to go, he was jumping around,” Prince said, describing her father’s enthusiasm before departure.
The family had hoped that Schowengerdt would be able to donate his organs. As an avid runner, his lungs were healthy enough to qualify for donation, and doctors told his daughter that his overall fitness made him a viable candidate. However, he died the day before the scheduled surgery to harvest his lungs. His eyes and tissues were still able to be donated. Chris Schowengerdt later received a letter from an organization indicating that the donation had restored sight to two people—a small measure of comfort during an otherwise devastating time.
The costs of the tragedy quickly mounted. The air ambulance alone was expected to generate significant bills, and the family established a GoFundMe account to help cover medical expenses and other costs. Rather than bring her husband’s body back to Missouri for a traditional funeral and burial, Chris made the difficult decision to have him cremated due to the expense of transporting his remains across state lines. A celebration of life was held on Friday at Lake Jacomo in Kansas City, a location chosen to reflect Rex’s lifelong love of the outdoors and camping.
“There’s nothing that could have stopped that rock from falling. It was a freak, horrible thing,” Prince said when recounting her mother’s account of the incident to reporters. The rock that killed her father was relatively modest in size—dense and heavy enough to inflict fatal head trauma, but not the boulder some might have imagined. According to Prince, her mother told her that she saw two small pebbles fall before the larger rock came crashing through the roof.
Despite the tragedy, Prince said her father left behind an important message. “He said, ‘Amy, I want you just to remember that when you’re out in nature, don’t take it for granted. Look, really look and really see, and take a second look,'” Prince recalled her father telling her just before the trip. It was a philosophy he had instilled in his family throughout his life and one he wanted his legacy to represent. “I don’t want Dad forgotten, and I don’t want his life to be meaningless,” Prince said. “He was a valuable person.”
Schowengerdt is survived by his wife of 50 years, Chris, two adult children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. While rockfall remains a known hazard along sections of Going-to-the-Sun Road, fatal incidents are rare. The last fatality from falling rocks on the road prior to Schowengerdt’s death occurred in 1996, nearly 30 years earlier. In August 2019, a 14-year-old girl from Utah was killed when rocks fell onto the vehicle she was traveling in near the East Tunnel, an incident that injured four other family members as well. Since the Going-to-the-Sun Road was reconstructed several years ago, crews have installed massive bolts in some areas above the road to help stabilize cliff faces and reduce the risk of rockfall, but such incidents continue to occur.