HELENA — John C. Harrison, the longest-serving Montana Supreme Court justice with 34 years on the bench, has died. He was 98.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s office said Friday that Harrison died on Nov. 11. A cause of death was not given.
Harrison and his wife, Virginia, moved to Helena in 1946, according to an obituary published in the Independent Record. He worked as the attorney for Lewis and Clark County, East Helena and counsel for the Fort Belknap tribe before being elected to the state Supreme Court in 1960.
Harrison was re-elected to six-year terms in 1966 and 1972 and to eight-year terms in 1978 and 1986. He retired in 1994.
Harrison was born in Grand Rapids, Minn., on April 28, 1913. He attended Montana State College in Bozeman and the University of Montana’s law school, where he met his future wife and spent summers as a “jammer” driving Glacier National Park’s famous red tour buses.
Harrison moved to Washington in 1937 and graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1940.
He was called into active service in the U.S. Army later that year and was posted in England in 1943, where he worked on the planning for D-Day Operation Overlord, according to the obituary.
Funeral services will be Saturday at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Helena. Schweitzer has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff.