Lieutenant Thomas Lee Judge Spouse(s) Margaret Evelyn Samson Party Democratic Party Preceded by Tim M. Babcock Religion Methodist Succeeded by Thomas Lee Judge | Preceded by Arnold Olsen Name Forrest Anderson Resigned January 1, 1973 Political party Democratic Education University of Montana | |
Born January 30, 1913
Helena, Montana ( 1913-01-30 ) Role Former Governor of Montana Died July 20, 1989, Helena, Montana, United States Previous office Governor of Montana (1969–1973) | ||
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. Prior to this, he served as the Attorney General of Montana from 1957 to 1969.
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Biography
Anderson was born in Helena, Montana. He was graduated from the University of Montana Law School and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America. He married Margaret Evelyn Samson on January 24, 1941, and the couple had three children.
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 1956 Democratic National Convention, 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.
Anderson gained national notoriety in 1958 when he was hospitalized after taking balls of cotton, soaking them in alcohol, and then setting them on fire in his anus.
Death
In 1989, Anderson, who had been in failing health for years, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home. He was cremated and his ashes are interred in Forestvale Cemetery, Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana. The Forrest H. Anderson Memorial Bridge which crosses the Missouri River in Craig is named in his honor.