Forrest H. Anderson

Forrest Howard Anderson (January 30, 1913 – July 20, 1989) was an American politician and judge who served as the 17th Governor of Montana from 1969 to 1973.^[1]

Biography

Anderson was born in Helena, Montana.^[2] He was graduated from the University of Montana Law School and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. He married Margaret Evelyn Samson^[3] on January 24, 1941, and the couple had three children, Arlee, Newell, and Marge.

Career

Anderson was a Democrat. He served in the Montana House of Representatives from 1943 to 1945. He was a Lewis and Clark County Attorney from 1945 to 1947. He was also an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1953 to 1957, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1956, and Montana Attorney General from 1957 to 1968.

Elected as Governor of Montana in 1968, Anderson was sworn in on January 6, 1969, and he was in office until January 1, 1973. During his tenure, he combined more than one hundred state agencies into nineteen departments, and authorized the 1972 Constitutional Convention and implemented the new constitution once it was ratified.

Death

In 1989, Anderson, who had been in failing health for years, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home.^[4][5] He was cremated and his ashes are interred in Forestvale Cemetery, Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana.^[3]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Forrest H. Anderson.

• Forrest H. Anderson at Find a Grave
• National Governors Association
• The Political Graveyard

Governors of Montana Territorial (1864–89) Edgerton Meagher G. Smith Ashley Potts Crosby Carpenter Hauser Leslie White State (since 1889) Toole Rickards R. Smith Toole Norris Stewart Dixon Erickson Cooney Holt Ayers Ford Bonner Aronson Nutter Babcock Anderson Judge Schwinden Stephens Racicot Martz Schweitzer Bullock