Montana Highway Patrolman, Herb Slack, Butte, lost his only son on Fathers Day when Herbert Eugene (Gene) Slack, 18, outstanding football and basketball player at Butte High School two seasons ago, was killed as his car hit a retaining wall at Front and Harrison.   The Slacks reside at 718 S. Dakota.

      Dr. Emmet J. Paulsen, Silver Bow County coroner said Slack died almost instantly of a broken neck.   Both he and Asst. Police Chief John O'Leary said it appeared young Slack dozed at the wheel of his north bound car and it smashed into the retaining wall at the Cahill-Mooney Construction Co.   The accident occured at about 3:30 AM.   Slack was alone.

      Young Slack was the third person to die in traffic accidents this year.   On Jan. 9, Louis Rosenstein, 84, died of injuries he received when struck by a car at Park and Main a week earlier;   and on Feb. 4, Linda Hancock was crushed by a runaway car in the 400 block of West Granite.

      All three traffic fatalities in Silver Bow County this year have occurred within the Butte city limits.

      Dr. Paulsen said he plans no inquest into Slack's death.   Paulsen and O'Leary said the youth appeared dead when they arrived at the accident scene, but he was taken to Community Memorial Hospital where physicians pronounced him dead.

      The front end of the car was caved in but O'Leary said tire marks indicated there was no excessive speed.

      Slack starred as a halfback in football at Butte High School and was a capable basketball performer.   He last played football with the 1956 team, and basketball with the 1956-57 squad that captured the state championship.   He had just completed his first year at Montana State University.

      Slack was rewarded for his football prowess by being selected to the West team in the East-West All Star football game at Great Falls in 1957.

      At Butte High School, Slack was an outstanding student and was elected "king" of the senior class at the annual high school coronation ball.   Principal Charles C. Davis said he remembers Slack as "a top academic student and, personally, one of the finest boys I have ever known."

      Slack was born Dec. 4, 1939, in Missoula.   He came to Butte as a child and graduated from the Emerson Grade School.

      He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Butte High School Key Club, Highland Chapter of the Order of DeMolay, and Sigma Chi Fraternity at MSU.

      Besides his father and mother, he is survived by brothers-in-law and sisters, Mr. and Mrs. John Lehfeldt of Butte and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Brynie of Bigfork;   uncles and aunts, Mr. and Mrs. George Schweitzer of Plains, Mrs. Margaret Johnson of San Jose, Calif., Mr. and Mrs. Guy McClung of Victor, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Schweitzer of Portland, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schweitzer of Missoula, Mr. and Mrs. Jack McDonough of Spirit Lake, Idaho, and numerous cousins in Montana, Ohio, Oregon and California.

      Funeral arrangements are pending at Richards Funeral Home.