Remembering Lee Metcalf

Was Lyndon B. Johnson a horse's behind? Lee Metcalf was among those who thought so. I'll tell you about that.

State media writers have recently talked about Lee Metcalf because it was 30 years ago when our crusading liberal U.S. Senator died in his sleep while at home in Helena. The date was Jan. 11, 1978. He was finishing the last year of his third term in the U.S Senate and because of health problems had not committed to run for a fourth term.

It is difficult for me to recall many funny things about that man. Lee had a finely tuned sense of humor but it was not often displayed. He was very serious most of the time. He always seemed to have terribly important things to get done… right now. Did he have a lot of patience? Not much.

When I went to Washington after Metcalf was elected to the Senate and asked me to serve on his staff, I spent the first couple of days settling into a desk and finding my way around the Capitol complex.

Noticed a large photo print on the inside of Lee's Senate office main door. It showed a busy Montana cattle roundup, branding, roping and all those activities. Dominating the foreground was the after end of a saddle horse looking down from a hill at the roundup below. Above the brand on the right rear hip was a prominent "LBJ." I did a double take, then a closer examination. The artwork was so well done it took careful study to see the letters had been added to the original photo by someone.

As Vice President, Lyndon Baines Johnson worked with the Senate and visited the offices up there, so I asked administrative assistant, Brit England, "Who did that LBJ brand?" Brit smiled and said, "Our boss did that."

"Isn't he worried that Johnson might see it?"

"No! I suspect Lee would like that."

Lee Metcalf was one of the most accomplished and honorable men I ever knew. He had his demons and fought them. The positive things he did should be remembered because few people could ever hope to match them. Let's start by remembering he was a primary founder of Medicare, Federal financing for education, and he got Kennedy's Peace Corps bill through the Senate with the help of Mike Mansfield.

Before Lee Metcalf ever went to Congress, first as a Representative for four terms then the Senate, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana Supreme Court. Lee went to war and was a tank commander with the first U.S. troops to go into Germany. When the fighting was over he helped set up democratic elections for Germany's new government and he helped prosecute the Nazis at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials.

Lee Metcalf did not send out self-promoting press releases. Did not hold press conferences. Although he served on the International Migratory Waterfowl Commission to help manage those birds, he refused to pose with a shotgun in a waterfowl blind for a campaign photo. He told us he wasn't about to pretend to be a hunter when he wasn't one.

Perhaps his best-known legacy was winning the fight for The Wilderness Bill and the Wild and Scenic Rivers. That project is what he hired me to work on. In my first week, Lee walked by my desk and tossed down a report pamphlet from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Said, "There is evidence in there that Montana will lose over 700 miles of trout streams this year. We have to do something about that — we have no other choice."

Lee Metcalf devoted his life to helping Montana, the United States and the World become a better place to live because… he "had no other choice."

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI radio and a Hungry Horse News columnist.