Curious in class, on field or in water, Hellgate's Naughton heads south (2024)

There's something curious about Henri Naughton.

Maybe it's that he excels both in playing classical cello and surfing the wild waves of the Lochsa River, or the way his thoughtful study of history belies his prowess in school sports. Or maybe it's simply that Naughton, 18, is himself deeply curious about seemingly everything he approaches.

Hellgate High School teachers described Naughton, who graduated June 1, variously as humble, a team player and a creative thinker. But the teachers, who responded separately to the Missoulian about their now-former student, all came back to the same word: curious.

"There was always a courteousness in Henri, an innatepoliteness," history teacher Courtney Christopher wrote in an email. "It cloaked burning questions about history. Those questions spanned time and space, from the Mongols to Estonia, disclosing the intelligence and curiosityhe has for life."

Rachel Lunde, who taught Naughton for two years of International Baccalaureate history, wrote that "Henri has an intrinsic curiosity to learn about any kind of history and makes connections and applies his knowledge to betterunderstand the complexities of events and people across time and space."

Naughton's mother emigrated at 18 from Estonia and her family mostly remains there, he said. He's visited them in Estonia, and he's visited an aunt on his mom's side who moved to Australia. He said he enjoys having family around the globe, even though he can't visit in person very often.

"I think because he has deep roots and identity to being Estonian," Lunde said, "he has a broader view of the world than many of his peers."

On a sunny afternoon a few days before graduation, Naughton sat on the top-floor patio at the Missoula Public Library and looked back on 18 years that were soon to culminate with a diploma.

He was born in Eugene, Oregon, but his family moved to Missoula when he was still a toddler, he said, settling in the South Hills. He has two younger siblings, in the fifth and sixth grades.

He attended Lewis & Clark Elementary School and then Washington Middle School. His family's South Hills home had him poised to attend Sentinel High School, but they moved to the University District before his freshman year, sending him instead to Hellgate.

"I started out at the elementary school in the Sentinel district, so all those kids I grew up with through middle school go to Sentinel and I go to Hellgate," he said, noting that some of the people he met new in middle school also went on to Hellgate. "I really liked Hellgate. I feel like it was a good community and I feel like it’s less cliquey than other high schools. It had good sports communities and overall I just liked all my teachers there as well. I feel like they’re all really good, cared about the students."

A few who stuck out, he said, were Christopher, Lunde and Lisa Ratz, who taught Naughton as a junior in an Advanced Placement chemistry class mostly comprised of seniors. He was also quick to name Ryan Davis, his music teacher, as a positive figure alongside his private cello instructor.

"They helped me progress to be pretty good and enjoy it," he said, recalling his four consecutive years making the all-state orchestra. "That’s a pretty good community at Hellgate, the music community."

But so too is the athletic community, he said. Naughton played junior-varsity soccer and basketball some years, and he hit the grid-iron for a year of varsity football.

"The first few years, I really met my best friends through playing multiple sports," he said. "That’s how I met people. Most my friends in high school I didn’t know until freshman year, so it really helped to bond through sports. Not a lot of us play on the same teams still, but we still hang out."

Other times it was friends who introduced Naughton into new sports, like surfing. He picked it up on Brennan's Wave downtown — "My friend did it and it was something that I wanted to try, and I almost obsessively got into it" — and in recent years has surfed daily when the river runs high with spring melt-off from the mountains. He likes to head down U.S. Highway 12 to surf on the Lochsa, and has made trips to surf the Pacific on the Oregon coast.

On land, you might find him mountain biking up the Rattlesnake or on the Mo-Z trail up the southwest corner of Mount Sentinel.

Christopher said that Naughton's strong academics and humility could conceal his athletic abilities and just how well-rounded a person he is.

"Without a veneer, he genuinely embraced his academics, so much so, one hardly knew about his athleticprowess," he wrote. "His humility understated his abilities. Truly multi-faceted and full of grace, Henri was a joy to have as a student and unerringly kind to his classmates. I think he is wonderful."

Come this fall, when he heads to University of Arizona in Tucson to study engineering, he may not be surfing as much but his mountain biking opportunities will expand to year-round. The school wasn't his first choice, but he has a friend there and the financial aid was great, he said. Plus, "it's also nice weather."

He isn't sure what type of engineering he'll focus on. Initially he was interested in pursuing chemical engineering, he said, but now is thinking about nuclear engineering. He plans to take a few semesters to see what he likes the most. Regardless, he seems poised to excel.

"I found firsthand that he enjoys science, and he demonstrated a curiosity that I appreciated," Ratz wrote in an email. "He was one to ask some really good questions and he demonstrated 'thinking outside of the box.'"

But before he heads south, he's planned a summer surf trip to see family on the coast and he hopes to backpack in Jewell Basin.

Wherever he is, Missoula remains a special place he'll come back to.

"I’m feeling like this is definitely a place I’m going to want to come back to," he said. "It has everything ... I just really like all the rivers and all the recreation opportunities here. I feel like it’s a big community."