Celebration of 50th Anniversary of Montana's Constitution announced

Press release

Mae Nan Ellingson and Jerry Loendorf, Montana Constitutional Convention Delegates and Co-Chairs of the Constitutional Convention Celebration Committee, today announced the preliminary plans to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Montana’s 1972 Constitution in May and June of 2022.

The Constitutional Convention Celebration Committee — CCCC — was created to celebrate Montana’s Constitution on its 50 Anniversary in 2022, to recognize the Convention and the 100 delegates who wrote the document and publicize the provisions of the Constitution that warrant its celebration.

May 25, a series of concurrent “We the People” community discussions about Montana’s Constitution will be held in nine cities and towns throughout the state under the auspices of the CCCC working with Leadership Montana and the Mike Mansfield Center. The nine concurrent community meetings will be held in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell, Lewistown, Missoula and Sidney and will feature a uniform statewide presentation beamed from the Mansfield Center followed by local discussion. The exact time and locations of these community discussions will be announced soon.

June 15-16, CCCC will host a special two-day event in Helena to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the certification of the ratification vote of the Constitution by the people of Montana. The event, “We the People: The Making of a Constitution,” will be held at the State Capitol and the Montana Historical Society. Most of the activities will take place in the Convention Hall (House of Representatives).

In 1973, after the Convention and passage of the Constitution by the people, the 100 delegates formed the 1972 Constitutional Convention Society, which consists solely of the delegates and which will terminate upon the death of the last member. The Society has met annually for the last 49 years and will meet again for a 50th time at the beginning of these proceedings June 15.

June 15, the Society will convene in the Convention Hall in the Capitol where an honorary roll call will be taken for all 100 delegates or their descendants. The 12 remaining delegates will be recognized and tribute paid to all 100 who wrote the Constitution over 54 days in early 1972. A number of keynote speakers will be featured, including governmental officials who have served under the Constitution, and a series of panel discussions will focus on:

• various articles of the Constitution, including its groundbreaking Declaration of Rights;

• the process leading up to the writing of the Constitution;

• the election in 1971 of the 100 delegates who drafted, debated and ultimately signed the Constitution on March 23, 1972; and

• Ratification by the people on June 6, 1972.

Gov. Greg Gianforte will open the proceedings with a welcome and the first day will conclude with a public reception in the Grand Entry to the Montana Historical Society Building, sponsored by CCCC and the Historical Society. All activities will be open to the public and will be filmed for posterity.

All four of Montana’s living former governors — Govs. Ted Schwinden, Marc Racicot, Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock — are serving as Honorary Chairs of the Constitutional Convention Celebration Committee. 

A bipartisan CCCC executive committee of interested citizens will be guiding the efforts of the celebration. They include Co-Chair Mae Nan Ellingson of Missoula, retired attorney and ConCon Delegate; Co-Chair Jerry Loendorf of Helena, retired attorney and ConCon Delegate; Evan Barrett of Butte, ConCon historian; Norma Bixby of Lame Deer, former Montana state legislator and Indian education specialist; Bob Brown of Whitefish, former Montana Senate president and secretary of state; Tim Fox of Helena, former Montana attorney general; Mike Halligan of Missoula, attorney and former Montana state senator; Joel Krautter of Sidney, attorney and former Montana state legislator; Nancy Leifer of Missoula, president of the League of Women Voters of Montana; Rob Saldin of Missoula, University of Montana professor and director of the Mansfield Ethics and Public Affairs Program at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center; and Chantel Scheiffer of Helena, executive director of Leadership Montana.

CCCC Co-chairs Ellingson and Loendorf, who were 24 and 32 at the time of the convention, are two of the 12 remaining delegates of the 100 who wrote the Constitution.

Ellingson said that the 50th Anniversary “is an opportunity for new and older generations of Montana citizens to reflect on what ‘We the People’ means and to understand that all power under the Constitution is derived from ‘We the People.’ I believe our Constitution, often referred to as the best state constitution in the nation, is exactly that because it was written to and continues to reflect the values and ideals of the people of Montana.” 

Loendorf said the Celebration Committee wants to also recognize “the diversity of the 100 Montanans of all walks of life who crafted our Constitution: Republicans, Democrats and Independents, 19 women among them, mostly new to state-level politics and government, ranging from 24 to 74 years of age, who studied and prepared themselves for the responsibility of forging a new document to replace Montana’s archaic 1889 Constitution.

“During the 54 days we delegates were in session, we seated ourselves alphabetically, not by party, held no party caucuses and committed ourselves, as citizens, to the cause of better government,“ Loendorf concluded.

Ellingson said that she hoped the anniversary celebration would help Montanans to concur in the words Racicot wrote about the Constitution in 2001: “In this day and age there is much discussion of a perceived lack of trust in all levels of government. But if Montanans studied their state constitution, I think they would come away with the belief that the protections it affords as well as the opportunities for participation in governmental processes that it provides are meant to build trust rather than destroy it.”

Remaining Living Delegates of the 1972 Constitutional Convention

• Franklin Arness (Libby, now Milton, Delaware)

• Bob Campbell (Missoula)

• Wade Dahood (Anaconda)

• Mae Nan [Robinson] Ellingson (Missoula)

• Gene Harbaugh (Fort Peck, now Carlsbad, New Mexico)

• Lynn Sparks Keeley (Butte, now Mesa, AZ)

• Jerry Loendorf (Helena)

• Lyle Monroe (Great Falls, now Mesa, AZ)

• Marshall Murray (Kalispell, now Forest Grove, Oregon)

• Arlyne Reichert (Great Falls)

• Bob Vermillion (Shelby, now Great Falls)

• Roger Wagner (Nashua)

Key Living Constitutional Convention Staff/Commission Members

Research analysts and the section of Constitution they researched and staffed

• Rick Applegate (Declaration of Rights)

• Roger Barber (Revenue and Finance)

• Rich Bechtel (Legislative)

• Karen Beck Caplis (Executive)

• James Grady (General Government and Constitutional Amendment)

• Jerry Holloron Local Government)

• Bruce Sievers (Education and Public Lands) 

Other Key Staff

• Diana Schutte Dowling (Counsel and Style and Drafting)

• Former U.S. Senator and U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus (ConCon Committee Coordinator and Interim Executive Director)

Members of Constitution Revision Commission

• Former State Senator and County Commissioner Harry Mitchell of Great Falls

• ConCon Delegate and Attorney Wade Dahood of Anaconda

Complete list of Constitutional Convention delegates (bold print – living)

• Aasheim, Magnus — Antelope

• Anderson, John H., Jr. — Alder

• Anderson, Oscar L. – Sidney

• Arbanas, Harold – Great Falls

• Arness, Franklin — Libby

• Aronow, Cedor B. – Shelby

• Artz, William H. (Bill) – Great Falls

• Ask, Thomas – Roundup

• Babcock, Betty – Helena

• Barnard. Lloyd – Saco

• Bates. Grace C.- Manhattan

• Belcher, Don E. — Roundup

• Berg, Ben E., Jr. — Bozeman

• Berthelson, E.M. — Conrad

• Blaylock, Chet — Laurel

• Blend. Virginia H. – Great Falls

• Bowman, Jean M. – Billings

• Brazier. Geoffrey L. — Helena

• Brown, Bruce M – Miles City

• Bugbee, Daphne — Missoula

• Burkhardt, William A.- Helena

• Cain, Marjorie — Libby

• Campbell, Bob — Missoula

• Cate, Jerome J. — Billings

• Champoux, Richard J. (Rick) — Kalispell

• Choate, Lyman W. – Miles City

• Conover, Max — Broadview

• Cross, C. Louise — Glendive

• Dahood, Wade J. — Anaconda

• Davis, Carl M. — Dillon

• Delaney, Douglas – Grass Range

• Driscoll, Maurice — Butte

• Drum, Dave — Billings

• Eck, Dorothy — Bozeman

• Erdmann, Marian S. – Great Falls

• Eskildsen, Leslie (Joe) — Malta

• Etchart, Mark — Glasgow

• Felt, James R. — Billings

• Foster, Donald R. — Lewistown

• Furlong, Noel D. — Kalispell

• Garlington, J.C. — Missoula

• Graybill, Leo, Jr. – Great Falls

• Gysler, E.S. (Erv) – Fort Benton

• Habedank, Otto T. — Sidney

• Hanson. R.S. (Bob) — Polson

• Hanson. Rod — Fairfield

• Harbaugh, Gene — Poplar

• Harlow. Paul K. – Thompson Falls

• Harper, George — Helena

• Harrington, Daniel W. — Butte

• Heliker, George B. — Missoula

• Holland. David L. — Butte

• Jacobsen, Arnold V. — Whitefish

• James, George H. – Libby

• Johnson, Torrey B. — Busby

• Joyce. Thomas F. — Butte

• Kamhoot, AW. — Forsyth

• Kelleher, Robert Lee – Billings

• Leuthold, John H. — Molt

• Loendorf, Jerome T. – Helena

• Lorello, Peter (Pete) – Anaconda

• Mahoney, Charles H. – Clancy

• Mansfield. Rachell K. – Geyser

• Martin. Fred J. — Livingston

• McCarvel, Joseph H. — Anaconda

• McDonough, Russell C. — Glendive

• McKeon, Mike — Anaconda

• McNeil, Charles B. — Polson

• Melvin. J. Mason — Bozeman

• Monroe, Lyle R. – Great Falls

• Murray, Marshall — Kalispell

• Noble, Robert B. (Bob) – Great Falls

• Nutting, Richard A. — Silesia

• Payne, Katie — Missoula

• Pemberton, Catherine — Broadus

• Rebal, Donald – Great Falls

• Reichert, Arlyne – Great Falls

• Robinson, Mae Nan — Missoula

• Roeder, Richard B. — Bozeman

• Rollins, George W. — Billings

• Romney, Miles — Hamilton

• Rygg, Sterling — Kalispell

• Scanlin, Don — Billings

• Schiltz, John M. — Billings

• Siderius. Henry L. — Kalispell

• Simon, Clark E. — Billings

• Skari, Carman (Mr.) — Chester

• Sparks, M. Lynn — Butte

• Speer, Lucile – Missoula

• Studer, K.J. — Billings

• Sullivan, Veronica — Butte

• Swanberg, William H. – Great Falls

• Toole, John H. — Missoula

• Van Buskirk, Edith — Havre

• Vermillion, Robert — Shelby

• Wagner, Roger — Nashua

• Ward, Jack K. — Hamilton

• Warden. Margaret S. – Great Falls

• Wilson. Archie — Hysham

• Woodmansev. Robert F. – Great Falls