Title
Restoration/Paydirt
Document Type
Lecture
Publication Date
3-7-2018
Abstract
Former U.S. Congressman Pat Williams will discuss the political and economic conditions that resulted in the largest restoration effort in American history.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Pat, "Restoration/Paydirt" (2018). Guest Lectures. 56.
https://digitalcommons.mtech.edu/campus_lectures/56
COinS
Comments
Butte is the city Pat calls home. He enjoyed his elementary and secondary education in Butte and then attended five colleges, including the University of Montana, Montana State, and Western. During his early career as a teacher, Pat taught at the Blaine School, Butte’s Junior High, and High School. In The 1960’s he served two terms in the Montana Legislature as a Representative of Butte and Silver-Bow County. It was in that position Pat first became interested in land reclamation. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1978 and served nine terms until 1997, the most consecutive terms ever served by any Montanan. During those years, Pat was vital to the federal efforts of reclaiming and restoring the largest Superfund site in the nation: Beginning in Butte and running the length of the Clark Fork River drainage. Pat and his wife Carol, who is also from Butte, returned to Montana in ’97 and he began a twenty-year teaching career at the University of Montana. Now retired both Pat and Carol remain active in Montana’s political scene.