Terry Hanson

Terry James Hanson was surprised in his expectation of immortality on the 20th day of March 2025. Terry was born on March 10, 1941, in Miles City, Montana, to Verona (Vonnie)T. Strom and Ted J. Hanson. His mother, Vonnie, later married Roland (Laddie)V. Colgrove, a Miles City trial lawyer.

In June of 1956 his father Ted flew to Montana and they drove Terry's 1947 Ford up the Alcan Highway (a 1200 mile dirt road) to the then Territory of Alaska. In Alaska he lived with Ted in Tok, Mantasta Lake, Fairbanks, and in the Spring of 1957 moved to Riverside Lodge south of Tok and north of the Canadian line on the Alcan Highway. Before leaving Fairbanks he bought his first motorcycle and when not working in the summer of 1957 drove and explored Alaska Territory's interior.

In late August of 1957, while returning to Montana on his motorcycle, he stopped at a roadhouse south of Haines Junction on the Alcan Highway and a truck driver from Great Falls, Paul Weeks, came into the café, told Terry that his dad had asked him to be on the lookout for him and then asked if Terry wanted to load the bike into the back of his North American Van Line truck for a hitch to Montana. He accepted immediately because for days he had been riding in the rain, cold and mud.

Terry spent the winter of 1957 north of Jordan in the Missouri Breaks working on the Binion Ranch. Terry attended all the schools in Miles City including the State School. Upon returning to Miles City from the ranch in the spring of 1958, he began a stretch in the Montana State Industrial School (now Pine Hills School for Boys) after getting out, and a refresher second stint of equal length the following year. He always maintained if they hadn't gotten his attention there, he would have never graduated from high school! He returned to Custer County High School for '59, '60 and graduating in 1961.

His release from Reform school in January of 1960 began an exciting and prolific decade, the sixties. He attended Miles City Community College and North Dakota State University (NDSU), where he was a football walk-on in 1962. In summer of 1963 he attended and graduated from Reserve Naval Officer's Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, where he also memorably attended a performance of Bob Dylan at the Newport Jazz Festival.

He left NDSU in the spring of 1964 and entered the Navy as an enlisted seaman. His ship was the USS Marias, AO 57, a fleet oil tanker home ported in Barcelona, Spain. His service was mainly in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas as well as the North and South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. After his service in the Navy's Atlantic Fleet, he attended the University of Montana, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in June of 1969. He then enrolled in Law School at the University of South Dakota. He married the love of his life, Deborah Lynn Nord, on December 27, 1969, in Missoula, Montana.

Upon graduating from the U of South Dakota in 1972 with a Juris Doctor Degree he skipped his graduation when Deborah and he traveled to San Francisco. There they walked door to door for Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. Terry passed the Montana bar exam in October 1972 and began practice in Miles City with Montana Legal Services. In March of 1973 Deborah and Terry moved to Helena, Montana. where Terry was General Counsel to the Montana Public Service Commission. This was a time when the Commission actually regulated utilities, railroads, taxi cabs and trucking companies, among other entities. Following a change in the Commission from three to five commissioners, Terry left the Commission and moved to Kalispell where he accepted the job as deputy county attorney of Flathead County. They returned to Miles City in 1977 where he practiced law over 40 years specializing in personal injury, workers compensation and criminal defense.

Terry was a member of the Democratic Party, Northern Plains, Miles City Club, Death Wish River Rafters, High Plains Car Club, Eagles, Elks, Montana Bar Association and the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, serving on the Board of Directors from 1979 to 1989. He was admitted to practice before the Montana Supreme Court, US District Court, Montana, and Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Terry was a man of many passions, including travel. Deborah and Terry traveled extensively in North America, including driving the Alaska Highway and driving to Mexico City and Acapulco. They also took in the Edmonton Blues and the New Orleans Jazz fests several times. They traveled to England, France and Switzerland together. He also took many cruises with Deborah, all over the Caribbean and off Mexico, through the Panama Canal, Tahiti, and the river boats, the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. But the most fun of all were seventeen years of Delbert McClinton's Blues Cruises – great friends and music!

Terry drove his 1949 Mercury, and later his 1947 Ford convertible, in the Bucking Horse Sale parade annually. He sponsored a horse race at the sale for many years. He loved motorcycles, rode over fifty years, including competition hill climbs in the late 60's. Terry loved to play the harmonica which he learned from George Yellow Eyes in reform school. In 1989 Deborah and Terry were instrumental in restoring the historic Montana Bar in Miles City. Some think they did this just so he would have a place to sit in on harmonica with the Blues Bands they hired. One could always hear his distinctive laugh above all.

Another passion was cooking. Who can forget the Gumbo, Orange Curried Pork Loin, Oysters Rockerfeller amongst his many treats. Another passion included dancing with Deborah, which included many a late evening when the table and chairs would be pushed aside and they would dance in the kitchen until the wee hours and other times in the local pubs and nite clubs.

He was most passionate about rafting rivers. Deborah and Terry rafted over 500 miles of the Yellowstone, including Yankee Jim Canyon of the upper Yellowstone, the Tongue, Blackfoot, Judith, Madison, Middle and North Forks of the Flathead, Buffalo Rapids on the Flathead, Alberton Gorge of the Clark Fork, and the Smith River in Montana. They also rafted the hundred mile white-water run of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho in 1998. Deborah decided that she had enough of some of his white-water rafting following that wild trip when she spent some time under the boat in heavy water. Terry also rafted the Green River, through the Gates of Lodore, Dinosaur National Monument, from Colorado to Utah, several times, and the Cataract Canyon of the Colorado River in Utah. As Mark Twain said: “You never age when you are on the river!”

The excitement and solitude of being on a river with all of your gear to survive, day after day, and camping night after night, brings to mind verse that captures the spirit and lure of it all.........

We are but travelers drifting by

on the endless flow of time.

The rocks, the trees, the river, the sky

must pass, no matter how sublime.

The swirling wake behind the oar blade

dwindles in a trice.

The campfire ring beneath the glade

swept clean by freshet's ice.

Will we move on without a trace

to show that we were here?

Will no one know our voice, our face,

year after year?

Yet I know I will live on

long after my life goes.

Though no one mourn me when I'm gone,

I know the river knows.

[“I will live on” by Ken Corbett; from “Paddle Tracks” poetry collection]

He was preceded in death by his parents, Vonnie and Laddie Colgrove, and his father, Ted Hanson. He is survived by his beloved wife Deborah and her family, the Nords of Missoula: Jeff, Mark, Kris, and Wendy George, his sister, Sheri Parker, nephews Vince and Jim (Beth Gruba), and numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. Terry is also survived by his 44 year old Red Lored Amazon Parrot, Shortcake, who didn't care much for him because of his relationship with Shortcake's girlfriend, Deborah.

“Do as much good as possible and have as much fun as you can while you are at it.”

“I've had a really good time.”

In lieu of flowers a gift may be made to Northern Plains Resource Council or a Charity of one's choice.