Archives West Finding Aid

Albert Adair was raised in Kansas and attended the University of Kansas engineering school. He came to Montana in 1920 where he farmed and worked on construction jobs in Broadwater County. Adair worked in Montana State Liquor Store No. 1 in Helena from the time that it opened in 1933, until 1941. He then was employed by the Helena branch of the Federal Reserve Bank and as safety inspector for the Montana Industrial Accident Board. From 1954 to 1957 Adair was the Montana Deputy State Fire Marshall. He then worked briefly as the insurance examiner for Montana and zone 6 of the National Board of Insurance Commissioners before being elected in November 1958 as railroad and public service commissioner for a six-year term. Adair ran for state representative in 1968 and was defeated. Albert Adair was active in the Democratic Party for much of his life. He married Genevieve Squires of Dillon and Butte. She was deputy state superintendent of public instruction from 1948 to 1956. Hugh Rogers Adair was born August 27, 1889, in Trego County, Kansas, the son of Asa Rogers and Emma May Adair. He attended high school in Ellis, Kansas; Spaulding Commercial College in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1908; Kansas State Normal College (West Branch) in 1909; and received his law degree in 1913 from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. In 1913 he moved to Lewistown, Montana, where he worked briefly as a laborer for the Milwaukee Railroad before beginning his law practice. Adair left Lewistown in 1917 to enlist in the U.S. Army in Lawrence, Kansas. Upon his discharge in 1919 he moved to Helena, Montana, where he worked as counsel for the Banking Corporation of Montana and began his career as a trial lawyer. He served as Helena City Attorney for four years and as the Lewis and Clark County Attorney from 1921 to 1925. Adair represented Lewis and Clark County in the Montana legislative assemblies of 1927 and 1931. He was lieutenant governor in Governor Roy E. Ayers' administration, 1937-1941. In 1940 Adair ran for the United States House of Representatives but was defeated in the Democratic Party primary. Adair was elected as an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court in 1942 and served from 1943 to 1947 and from 1957 to 1969. He served as chief justice from 1947 to 1957. Previous to his service on the Supreme Court, Adair and Lester Loble were law partners. Hugh Adair was very active in the Democratic Party and civic organizations. He was a member of the Helena Earthquake Relief Commission in 1935; Montana State Chairman for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis from 1938 to 1941; chairman of the executive board of the Montana State Vocational School for Girls from 1935 to 1937; a member of the Montana State Board of Law Examiners from 1940 to 1943; director of Montana March of Dimes fundraising for three years in the 1940s; and a member of various bar associations, the American Legion, the Elks, the Shriners, etc. Adair married Jeanice James on September 25, 1935; the couple had one son, Hugh Rogers II, "Jim Bridger". Jeanice Adair died February 1, 1944. Hugh Adair died January 18, 1971.