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The O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West was
formally established by the Montana University System Board of Regents in 1992
as a forum to explore, examine, and articulate an inclusive regional identity
and vision using a variety of disciplines. The very first gift received
by the Center in establishing its endowment – a gift of $600,000 from the
O’Neill Family Foundation of Orego n
for use in establishing a study program in western history - was received in
the early 1990s. A Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities of $520,000 was then secured and matched with additional
contributions exceeding $1,560,000. Carroll and Nancy Fields O’Connor, both
graduates of The University of Montana, provided the single largest endowment
gift and the Center was named for them in recognition of this.
Additional endowment gifts to the Center exceeding $100,000 also have been made
by the Billings-based Foundation for Community Vitality, Chris and James Scott
of Billings, and Norman Creighton, a UM alum formally from Los Angeles.
Today, through other contributions and earnings growth, the Center’s total
endowment fund now exceeds $3.7 million and is continuing to grow.
The Center’s initial programs were in history and the humanities with
programming focused on the U.S. Northern Rockies. Several early
Center-initiated conferences of note included “Montanans New and Old” and “A.B.
Guthrie’s The Big Sky – After 50 Years.” In the mid-1990s, the Center
expanded its geographic focus to include the entire region centered around the
North American Rockies, including areas within two Canadian provinces and five
or six U.S. states. From the early 1990s to the present, this region has
had the fastest growing economy of any region in North America. The
Center added a program for sustained study of the region’s economic growth and
change in the mid-1990s. Additional programs followed with focuses on
important areas in public policy. Today, the O’Connor Center is one of
the leading university-based, regional study programs in the entire western
United States.
The O’Connor Center remains a work-in-progress and will continue to expand and
shape its programming to provide inquiry, expert analyses, and public education
of greatest relevance to the region and its key leadership and stakeholders.
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