Brown, Bob, 1947 Dec. 11-, interviewer

Bob Brown was born in Missoula, Montana, on December 11, 1947, but grew up on his family's grain and cattle ranch near Whitefish, Montana. He obtained a bachelor's degree in history from Montana State University-Bozeman in 1970 and a master's degree in education from the University of Montana-Missoula in 1988. He spent two years in the Navy, from 1971 to 1972, and married Susan Stoeckig in 1975. They have two daughters. Over 27 years, he taught government, history, and economics at three high schools in western Montana, and coached speech and debate teams.

At the age of 22 Brown became one of the youngest Montanans ever elected to the state House of Representatives. He served two terms in the House and was elected to the Senate in 1974. He served in the Senate through 1996, when term limits prevented him from running again. He was Senate president in his legislative session. Brown became a lobbyist for a telephone company, aluminum plant, and the Montana university system for four years and then was elected Montana Secretary of State in 2000 with 51 percent of the vote in a four-way race. Brown began a campaign for governor in July 2003 and faced three opponents for the GOP nomination. He won with 39 percent of the vote, a 16-point margin over the second-place finisher, but lost the election to Democratic candidate Brian Schweitzer.

In January 2005 Bob Brown returned to The University of Montana when he joined the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West as a senior fellow. Creating this oral history collection from 2005-2010 is just one of the projects he undertook in that position.

From the guide to the Bob Brown oral history project, 2005-2010, (University of Montana-Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)