BUTTE, Mont. -- Dave Sutey, 56, current president of Sutey Oil Co., Butte, Mont., and president of the Montana Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, passed away on March 8, 2011.
Sutey (pictured), the son of Louis and Phyllis (Tomich) Sutey, graduated from Butte High School in 1972. At an early age of 16, he went to work at Sutey Oil after his father passed away. He continued to build the family business as a Phillips 66 distributorship until the early 1980s. By this time he had been the president and chief operating officer at Sutey Oil Co. for numerous [image-nocss] years. In 1981, he purchased the service stations from a loyal customer, Thriftway Service in Anaconda. Sutey Oil kept the Thriftway name and added the Super Stops to it.
In 1983, Phillips 66 left Montana and Sutey greatly expanded the business with the purchase of four 66 stations that were converted to Conoco-branded convenience stores. This began a series of c-store purchases and construction projects that continue to this day.
During the 1908s and early 1990s, he expanded Thriftway to seven stores, five in Butte and two in Anaconda. In 1994, he purchased the first store outside of the Butte area in Four Corners. In 1997 he built a new store with a car wash in Helena and the following year built a new store at the Four Corners location. In 1999 he purchased the Conoco distributorship and convenience stores of Rutledge Distributing of Bozeman. This purchase added two stores in Bozeman and one each in Belgrade and Manhattan. In 2003, he purchased the former Norman's Corner Conoco Store from the Norman Family in Three Forks.
Sutey Oil currently operates 14 Thriftway Super Stops in southwest Montana.
Sutey formed Mountain West Transportation LLC, which runs four large fuel transport delivery trucks and two smaller fuel delivery trucks in southwest Montana. In 1998, he was appointed to the National Marketer Council and served on this board until the year 2000. He was recently appointed to the Billings Marketer Regional Council that started January 1, 2011. At the time of his death, Sutey was the president of the Montana Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association.
On Jun 29, 1974, Sutey married Linda Kelly. They had three children. He was preceded in death by his father, Louis Sutey; grandmothers, Mary Tomich, Mary Sutey; grandfathers, David Tomich, Lukas Sutey. He is survived by his wife of 36 years Linda, daughter and son-in-law Lisa and Tim Tutty; son Louie Sutey (Sharon King), and daughter and son-in-law Kim and Chad Powers; his mother Phyllis (Tomich) Sutey and mother in-law Freda Kelley; Grandchildren: MacKenzie and Riley Tutty, Haylee, Tyse and Noah Powers; brother in-laws: John (June) Kelly of Butte, Jim (Marie) Kelly of Billings, Bill (Dana) Kelly of Butte, and Dan (Denise) Kelly of Dallas; Aunt Mary Matteucci and Uncle Bill (Joanie) Tomich.
CSP sends condolences to his family, his friends and his colleagues.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.