Montana State University, Bozeman, was founded in 1893 as the "Agricultural College of the State of Montana" by means of a statute signed into law by Governor John E. Rickards. The law stipulated that the institution was to be governed by a Local Executive Board of Education, a group of prominent citizens also appointed by the Governor which included Bozeman residents Peter Koch, Lester S. Willson, and Walter Cooper. This first board had tremendous power to set policy, establish a budget, and issue faculty contracts, recognizing only general direction from the State Board of Education. As a result, the Local Executive Board hired the first president, Augustus M. Ryon, and practiced oversight of all the college's finances. The Local Executive Board demonstrated the reach of their power within the first year of the college's existence by pressuring Ryon to resign as president and replacing him with James Reid. This act was followed by another purge of the faculty within a few years, this time permanently severing Ryon's connection with the college.
Over the next seventy years the name of the college changed, from the original named by statute to the "Montana State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts," or simply shortened to the "Montana Agricultural College." In 1965 the name was permanently changed to "Montana State University." During this same time the Local Executive Board gradually lessened their active role in oversight and became more of an advisory board to the university's president, giving up their role in financial affairs by 1953. This gradual change was underscored in 1972 when the new state constitution allowed for the formation of the State Board of Regents of Higher Education and an office of the Commissioner of Higher Education. The Regents assumed many of the duties that the original Local Executive Board had exercised and extends its oversight to all campuses in the Montana University System. In 2001 the duties of the System's various Local Executive Boards were confirmed by state law as "consultative and advisory service to the CEO of the institution as well as other duties as may be duly specified and communicated to them by, or on behalf of, the Board, CEO or the Commissioner of Higher Education."
From the guide to the Montana State University Local Executive Board Minutes, 1893-1970, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
