BUTTE — Butte is mourning the loss of Don Peoples Sr., a former Chief Executive of Butte-Silver Bow County who passed away on March 18. He is remembered as a leader who helped bring the Mining City out of an economic crisis in the 1980s.
When the Anaconda Company lost mines in Chile, the mining industry was in crisis in Montana. The Butte mine ceased production, and the threat of closure loomed if a new owner could not be found.
"Once you tear the infrastructure down, you’re done. You do not ever get mining back again, so it was an absolute crisis, and we lost about 10,000 direct jobs from the Anaconda company over a decade," Evan Barrett said.
WATCH: Butte is mourning the loss of Don Peoples Sr., the former chief executive who helped lead the city out of an economic crisis in the 1980s
Barrett was a friend, colleague, and mentee of Peoples Sr. He said national news outlets published obituaries for the death of the company town.
"Tom Brokaw read an obituary for Butte on the national news," Barrett said.
Peoples Sr. worked in local government and as a teacher, coach, and athletic director for Butte Central before taking the helm at Butte-Silver Bow.
"You know, nobody was a community leader like Don," Barrett said.
"He was always shoulder to the wheel. There wasn’t a job too big or too small, and it didn’t matter what it was; it was all about Butte, and to be quite honest with you, he was the guy who saved Butte," Jim Kambich said.
Barrett remembered a victorious moment when Peoples Sr. was Chief Executive and the trucks started moving ore again.
"I remember the first day that the trucks started to move ore and Don and I drove down to right where McGruff Park is where you can sit there and you can watch the trucks come down out of pit and dump their ore and we sat there and said, ‘Have you ever heard anything as sweet as the sound of those trucks’ which was people going back to work," Barrett said.
Peoples Sr. grew up on the Butte Flats, attended Emerson Elementary and Boys’ Central, and graduated from Montana State University. He and his wife Cathy met when they were 16, married six years later, and were married for 57 years.
"We’re really proud of what he did, and I think he’d be the first to say that he was one of many who fought so hard for Butte through some tough times. We’re very proud of what he accomplished and the life that he had and what he meant to our community," Don Peoples Jr. said.
"We have so many memories of you know him just being the center of our family life, and he loved his children and his grandchildren, and great grandchildren deeply and I think that’s what we’ll remember the most," Peoples Jr. said.
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