Remembering Another Dead Former Governor

As you can see the death of classy Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, is receiving attention just below. But I’ve been thinking about another former governor who died in the last few years: Tom Judge of Montana . He was the first governor I met after moving in 1977 from central California, where I was a bureau chief covering the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton, Calif., for four small bordering newspapers. I remember meeting Judge as he and his agriculture secretary deplaned at the small city airport in Kalispell, Mont. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t have body guards or an entourage. Only months before, I had covered an appearance of then-California Gov. Jerry Brown in Stockton, Calif. He was surrounded by bodyguards. Ordinary people couldn’t approach him. Meeting Judge in Kalispell taught me immediately that Montana elected officials are extremely approachable. (The same can be said of those in Idaho.) And that Montana (and Idaho) might be big geographically. But its easy to know the bigwigs in far-off Helena (or Boise). I like it like that.