Taylor Lee Schipman, 40, of Circle died Feb. 18, 2025, at St. Vincents Hospital in Billings. The doctors claim his cause of death was cardiac arrest due to complications with his type one diabetes, but all who knew him know he checked out because he’d learned that he would not be able to stream the 3C & 1B District Basketball tournaments while in his hospital room.
He was born June 25, 1984, in Kalispell, the firstborn son of Larry and Patti (Schriver) Schipman. He spent his first years of life in Kila, where he terrorized his dog and welcomed his little brother and sister, Trent and Shoni, to the world. At the young age of four, he was diagnosed with diabetes and spent the rest of his life ignoring that he had it. From then on, living on borrowed time, he lived his life to the fullest, making lifelong friendships and memories along the way.
He moved to the family ranch in Circle when he was in second grade in 1991. On his first day of school at Bo-Peep Elementary, he was very worried about meeting new friends and whether or not he’d have anyone to play with at recess. He came home and excitedly reported to his mother that he had made five new friends. After that, he got really good at making friends.
Playground football and basketball turned into a passion for sports that some might argue was more of an obsession. At a young age, he studied plays, scrutinized defenses and even wrote his own playbooks. While excelling as a Circle Wildcat athlete in multiple sports, he found his true joy in coaching and strategy. His first coaching position was coaching a travel team for his sister when he was a junior in high school. And just last week, before his death, he expressed his desire to begin an AAU basketball program with the goal of helping Circle Wildcats get basketball scholarships to larger colleges.
He received high marks academically at Circle High School and attended both Dickinson State University as well as Montana State University - Billings. Some people are book smart and some people are street smart, but he was both.
He left his mark around the town of Circle with his many roofing and siding jobs. He started working construction as a teenager working for different contractors, but eventually started his own contracting business to support his coaching addiction. He was meticulous in his work, but even more meticulous in the shaping and mentoring of the young men that worked with him. He wanted these young men to be able to one day put a roof over their head, learn work ethic and become the best version of themselves.
Coaching and mentoring the young men and women of Circle was his life ambition, but the true love of his life was Mikenda Seymour. They shared a love of basketball and a genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of the young athletes they coached. A long awaited marriage proposal was greatly celebrated by family, friends and athletes. She stood by his side on the basketball court, supported him while he coached football, drove them on all their adventures, took care of all his doctors’ appointments and medications and loved him more passionately in their seven years together than most experience in a lifetime.
He is survived by his fiancée, Mikenda Seymour; parents, Larry and Patti Schipman; brother, Trent Schipman; and sister, Shoni Townsend.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, Feb. 28, at 10 a.m. at the Circle High School gymnasium.
